A Moment for Mission
"I have heard of your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love toward all the saints, and for this reason I do not cease to give thanks for you as I remember you in my prayers." — Ephesians 1:15-16, NRSV
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women has developed two new resources to help United Methodists address sexual ethics and healthy boundaries within a church. "The Way of Integrity," inspired by The Integrity Project at Emory University, encourages living in right relationship with self and others within United Methodist faith communities. Through deep exploration of Scripture and other resources, participants will give intentional attention to core values and the development of self-awareness in all they do. This resource is easily adaptable to a sermon series, spiritual formation groups, Sunday school classes, youth ministry, campus ministry and other settings.
"Whispers with Stones," a five-minute animation, aims to create social and behavioral change around sexual harassment in the church and society. Directed by Chocolate Moose Media, the video can be shown to churches, small groups and Sunday schools to address the sexual misconduct that happens in our congregations and the world.
Each video has an accompanying guide for a leader to facilitate conversation after the animation is viewed. This resource has been translated into French, Portuguese, Swahili, Russian and Norwegian. Korean, Spanish, German and Tagalog translations will be available later this summer. These and other GCSRW resources are available for free download at www.gcsrw.org. To order physical copies of GCSRW resources, call 312-346-4900 or email [email protected].
Thanks to United Methodist support of the World Service Fund, congregations strengthen ministries that address sexual misconduct within the church.
— Jenn Meadows, General Commission on the Status and Role of Women
Offertory Prayer
Loving God, thank you for all of the saints who nurture your church and for the women and men who seek to include and make a difference for all people. In your name, we pray. Amen.
From Discipleship Ministries: Seventh Sunday of Easter — God of grace and glory, in the gift of the risen Christ, you long for us to be one in him, unafraid and bold to make your love known, not just in our words, but also in our living. As we bring our gifts to your altar to be dedicated, we bring our lives as well to be dedicated for a ministry that brings unity to the body and compassion and justice to all your children. Give us patience to listen where there is division and vision to see the things that unite us. We pray this in love and in the name of Jesus, who came that we might be as one. Amen. (John 17:20-26)
Newsletter Nugget
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women advocates for full participation of women in the total life of The United Methodist Church. We help the church recognize every person as a full and equal part of God's human family. We believe that a fully engaged and empowered membership is vital to The United Methodist Church's mission "to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world." We do this in four key ways:
- Provide resources for how to respond to and prevent sexual misconduct in The United Methodist Church.
- Monitor annual conferences, jurisdictional conferences and the General Conference for inclusiveness.
- Provide education through training and free curriculum.
- Train and support women from our U.S. annual conference COSROW chairs to women in the Central Conferences.
Thanks to United Methodist support of the World Service Fund, congregations strengthen ministries that include all of God's beloved children.
— Adapted from General Commission on the Status and Role of Women webpage