| Amid songs, UM Women look to worlds needs By Linda Bloom
United Methodist News Service  Their songs were joyous and uplifting, but the message was serious: whether by poverty, racism or the effects of war, women and children must no longer be marginalized. The message was repeated throughout the 2002 Assembly of United Methodist Women, held April 25-28 in Philadelphia. Under the theme, Sing a New Song, nearly 10,000 participants engaged in worship and Bible study; listened to speakers who discussed issues crucial to women and children; took part in 63 different afternoon focus groups and enjoyed evening musical performances. The million-member organization holds the event every four years, coordinated through its administrative arm, the Womens Division of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries. Assembly participants responded to a call to action by Marion Wright Edelman, founder and president of the Childrens Defense Fund. Following her April 26 presentation, they wrote letters to U.S. senators and representatives, advocating the reauthorization of the federal Child Care and Development Block Grant and a funding increase of $20 billion over the next five years. The effects of violence and war on children, especially in light of new aggression by the United States since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks, were highlighted by the Rev. Hea Sun Kim during her April 26 Bible study. Kim is a United Methodist clergywoman from the Baltimore-Washington Conference. Born on the ashes of the Korean War, Kim as a child attended a church established specifically for the war widows. None of my Sunday school friends had fathers, she recalled. Kim also learned that being a widow meant living in poverty because women with children could not make a living on their own. The United States may have the most power in terms of military weapons and global influence, but Kim said, War is not a way to build peace. We have learned that very well in Korea. Instead, she suggested, adults must possess the humbleness of children to achieve peace. They (children) are our spiritual center, and they are Gods kingdom in our midst, she said. Issues of war and peace also echoed in the April 27 Bible study presented by the Rev. Barbara Lundblad, a Lutheran pastor and associate professor of preaching at Union Theological Seminary. When Joshua arrived at the promised land, he found that Canaan was not deserted but inhabited by other groups. In the same way, America was not an empty land when Columbus discovered it, nor was Palestine deserted when it was divided by the British in 1948 to create the state of Israel. But while some 700,000 Palestinians were driven from their homes, the Jewish people who sought this homeland had been driven out of their homes by a holocaust so tragic it is almost impossible to imagine, she said. So dont make the mistake of thinking this is simple. From slurs against African slaves to Jews in Nazi Germany, this has always been a way to destroy a people: to dehumanize them to make them expendable, Lundblad added. Urging women to cross battle lines to make peace, Lundblad brought the audience to its feet in a standing ovation as she amended the lyrics of God Bless America to a more global perspective as God Bless the World We Love. Poverty is an offshoot of war, and several speakers spoke about the effects of poverty on women and children. Musimbi R.A. Kanyoro, from Kenya, pointed out that eradicating poverty is not just a moral imperative but a commitment to provide human dignity to people who we despise simply because of poverty. | 
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