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United Methodist Women’s Pre-Assembly Action Events

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
May 3, 2018
Contact: Jay Rollins, Communications Producer for Assembly 2018
jrollins@unitedmethodistwomen.org

United Methodist Women will turn their faith, hope and love into action at four action events related to its service and advocacy on Economic Inequality and Climate Justice leading up to and throughout its “The Power of Bold” quadrennial Assembly in Columbus, Ohio, May 18-20.

We invite you to cover these events impacting people in your service areas.

Action Event #1
When: May 14, 2 pm
What: Poor People’s Campaign: A National Call for Moral Revival Launch
United Methodist Women will join with ecumenical and community leaders to launch this campaign with rallies and civil disobedience for just and compassionate public policies to address poverty and help children and families.

United Methodist Women is a national co-sponsor of the campaign. Advocacy for living wage legislation is one of United Methodist Women’s mission priorities.

Where: U.S. Capitol Building in Washington, D.C.
and
Ohio State Capitol Building in Columbus, Ohio

Action Event #2
When: May 17, 9 am-3 pm
What: United Methodist Women Ubuntu Day of Service
Nearly 600 United Methodist Women members will start their Assembly experience volunteering at local organizations in the spirit of ubuntu, an African word meaning, I am human because you are human. Where: Buses will leave from the Greater Columbus Convention Center to community organizations around the city at 9 am.

Action Event #3
When: May 17, 4-5 pm
What: Ohio Needs a Living Wage Rally
United Methodist Women will stand with members of Ohio’s Service Employees International Union (SEIU), the Columbus Council of Churches and more in a public witness urging the state legislature to pass Ohio’s Living Wage bill (HB 576) to help families and individuals who are working yet poor and unable to cover daily living expenses.

Where: Ohio State House
1 Capitol Square, Columbus, Ohio

Action Event #4
When: May 18-19
What: Chevron Letter-writing Campaign to Cut Methane Emissions
Throughout Assembly United Methodist Women participate in a special letter-writing campaign to Chevron urging the company to invest more in renewable energy and cut its methane emissions and sign on to the Guiding Principles on Reducing Methane Emissions across the Natural Gas Value Chain developed by a coalition of industry, NGOs, and academic community and signed by at least eight oil and gas companies thus far.
Where: The Assembly Exhibit Hall Priority issues “work station”

For press credentials go to https://umwassembly.org/press/
Contact: Yvette Moore, 212, 870-3822, ymoore@unitedmethodistwomen.org

United Methodist Women is a nearly 800,000-member organization of women turning their faith, hope and love into action for 150 years. Members raise more than $12 million annually to support ministries empowering women, children and youth. United Methodist Women’s four mission priority issues are Climate Justice, Economic Inequality, Maternal and Child Health, and Mass Incarceration and Criminalization of Communities of Color.

Past Press Releases

Press Release Sept. 5, 2017

REGISTRATION OPEN FOR UNITED METHODIST WOMEN ASSEMBLY 2018
September 5, 2017
Registration for the United Methodist Women Assembly 2018 is officially open. The theme for Assembly is “The Power of Bold.” The event will mark the official celebration of the organization’s 150th anniversary and will also be a return to the location of the first Assembly in 1942 in Columbus, Ohio.
“Our movement was launched by the bold action of women who saw a need and claimed their power as disciples of Jesus Christ to address it,” said Harriett Jane Olson, chief executive officer of United Methodist Women. “They sent women leaders—Isabella Thoburn, an educator, and Dr. Clara Swain, a doctor—to India to serve women and children in 1869. This daring continued when leaders took a bold stand for racial justice and moved their first Assembly in 1942 to Columbus, where African-American women were welcomed at hotels and other public accommodations.”
The early registration fee for Assembly is $295 USD with a Nov. 30th deadline. After that date, regular registration is $330 USD. This fee includes two healthy lunches for attendees. Assembly is a great value at the $295 early registration fee. Few other faith-based conferences offer Worship/Plenaries infused with music and performing arts, quality workshops and town hall meetings with renowned leaders, action opportunities and Experience Hall with immersive educational encounters for such a low fee. Online registration is available at www.umwassembly.org/register.

A key component of every United Methodist Women Assembly is participatory workshops that engage members and provide skills and tools to take individual and collective action. The skills and tools that one receives at this Assembly should help propel you into the next 150 years of turning faith, hope and love into action on behalf of women, children and youth around the world. Assembly 2018 will feature pre-registered workshops. When you register for Assembly, you will sign up for one workshop on Friday and one workshop on Saturday. Space in each workshop is limited, so participants are encouraged to register early.

“The Power of Bold will be evident again at Assembly 2018, when 8,000 women come together in faith to address priority challenges of their day: mass incarceration, economic inequality, maternal and child health and climate justice,” Olson said. “We encourage our members to share the word, invite their friends and demonstrate that when women unite, bold and courageous actions occur!”

PRESS RELEASE MARCH 27, 2017

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
March 27, 2017
Contact: Jay Rollins, Communications Producer for Assembly 2018
jrollins@unitedmethodistwomen.org

UNITED METHODIST WOMEN LAUNCH PROMO VIDEO, RESOURCES FOR ASSEMBLY 2018

A new promotional video and resources have been launched in anticipation of the 19th quadrennial Assembly of United Methodist Women in Columbus, Ohio, May 18-20, 2018. These materials can be used by local United Methodist Women Circles, members and supporters to raise awareness of the event and encourage their networks to attend.

The theme for Assembly is “The Power of Bold.” The event will mark the official celebration of the organization’s 150th anniversary and will also be a return to the location of the first Assembly in 1942.

“Our movement was launched by the bold action of women who saw a need and claimed their power as disciples of Jesus Christ to address it,” said Harriett Jane Olson, chief executive officer of United Methodist Women. “They sent women leaders—Isabella Thoburn, an educator, and Dr. Clara Swain, a doctor—to India to serve women and children in 1869. This daring continued when leaders took a bold stand for racial justice and moved their first Assembly in 1942 to Columbus, where African-American women were welcomed at hotels and other public accommodations.”

The website and resources share this legacy and highlight the action-filled weekend where United Methodist Women members, friends and partners will gather to worship and learn about the needs of women, children and youth in the 21st century. The new resources, available in color and black/white, may be downloaded from the website, www.UMWAssembly.org/share. The video can also be viewed on YouTube at: http://bit.ly/UMWAssembly.

“The Power of Bold will be evident again at Assembly 2018, when 8,000 women come together in faith to address priority challenges of their day: mass incarceration, economic inequality, maternal and child health and climate justice,” Olson said. “We hope these resources will encourage our members to share the word, invite their friends and demonstrate that when women unite, bold and courageous actions occur!”

Press Release January 16, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
January 19, 2018
Contact: Jay Rollins, Communications Producer for Assembly 2018
jrollins@unitedmethodistwomen.org

UNITED METHODIST WOMEN ANNOUNCE SPEAKERS FOR ASSEMBLY 2018

Michelle Alexander, Leymah Gbowee, Katharine Hayhoe and Hannah Adair Bonner will be featured speakers at the 19th quadrennial Assembly of United Methodist Women in Columbus, Ohio, May 18-20, 2018. The theme of Assembly is “The Power of Bold.” The event will mark the official celebration of the organization’s 150th anniversary and will also be a return to the location of the first Assembly in 1942.

“Our movement was launched by the bold action of women who saw need and claimed their power as disciples of Jesus Christ to address it,” said Harriett Jane Olson, chief executive officer of United Methodist Women and additional speaker at the event. “They sent women leaders—Isabella Thoburn, an educator, and Dr. Clara Swain, a doctor—to India to serve women and children in 1869. This daring continued when leaders took a bold stand for racial justice and moved their first Assembly in 1942 from St. Louis to Columbus, where African-American women were welcomed at hotels and other public accommodations. The speakers at this year’s Assembly are all bold leaders and experts in their fields of mass incarceration, economic inequality, maternal and child health and climate justice.”

Michelle Alexander is author of the critically acclaimed The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, a stunning account of millions of African Americans imprisoned and then relegated to permanent second-class citizenship and legally denied enfranchisements won in the Civil Rights Movement. A legal scholar and civil rights litigator, Ms. Alexander has taught at a number of universities, including Stanford Law School, where she was an associate professor of law and director of its Civil Rights Clinics. In 2005, she accepted a joint appointment at the Kirwan Institute for the Study of Race and Ethnicity and the Moritz College of Law at The Ohio State University. Alexander has been featured in numerous national radio and television outlets, including NPR, C-Span, Washington Journal and Bill Moyers Journal. The New Jim Crow is a 2011 NAACP Image Award winner. She was a featured academic in the Academy Award nominated documentary “13th,” exploring systemic racism and the prison pipeline.

Leymah Gbowee received the Nobel Peace Prize in 2011 for her work in leading a women’s peace movement that brought an end to the Second Liberian Civil War in 2003. Gbowee shared the prize with Liberia’s President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf and Yemen native Tawakkol Karman. Gbowee and President Sirleaf became the second and third African women to win the prize, preceded by the late Wangari Maathai of Kenya. She is the founder and president of Gbowee Peace Foundation Africa based in Liberia. Her foundation provides educational and leadership opportunities to girls, women and youth in West Africa.

Named to TIME magazine’s 100 Most Influential People in the World list for 2014, Katharine Hayhoe is an atmospheric scientist who studies climate change, one of the most pressing issues facing humanity today. But Hayhoe may be best-known to many people because of how she’s bridging the broad, deep gap between scientists and Christians— work she does in part because she’s a Christian herself. Together with her husband Andrew Farley, a professor of applied linguistics, pastor of Church Without Religion, and best-selling author, Hayhoe wrote A Climate for Change: Global Warming Facts for Faith-Based Decisions, a book that untangles the complex science and tackles many long-held misconceptions about global warming. Her work as a climate change evangelist has been featured on the Emmy award-winning documentary series Years of Living Dangerously and The Secret Life of Scientists and Engineers. In 2012, she was named by Christianity Today as one of their 50 Women to Watch, while in 2014, she was awarded the American Geophysical Union’s Climate Communication Prize and named as one of Foreign Policy’s 100 Leading Global Thinkers and 20 Women Making Waves in the Climate Change Debate.

The Rev. Hannah Adair Bonner is the Director of the Wesley Foundation of Tucson, serving the University of Arizona. Previously she served as the Founder and Curator of The Shout, a spoken-word poetry collective based in Houston, Texas. In 2016, she was recognized as one of the 16 Faith Leaders to Watch in 2016, inducted as an honorary member of Sigma Gamma Rho Sorority, and given the Prathia Hall Social Justice Award by WomenPreach! Her first curriculum, published by Abingdon Press in 2016, is titled The Shout: Finding the Prophetic Voice in Unexpected Places. Dedicated to amplifying the voices of young women, she has produced two short film series, The Impact of Sandra Bland and Facing Christmas as well as a documentary released in 2017, Awaken the Voice. An avid hiker, Bonner can be found most evenings admiring a saguaro cactuses along one of Tucson’s many trails.

“The Power of Bold will be evident again at Assembly 2018, when 8,000 women come together in faith to address the priority issues of our day,” Olson said. “We know that these speakers will ignite the spirit, faith, compassion and drive of attendees to return to their communities around the world to make a difference.”

For more information on the United Methodist Assembly 2018 or to register for the event, please visit www.UMWAssembly.org

[Press release available at www.UMWAssembly.org/news]

PRESS RELEASE APRIL 16, 2018

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
April 16, 2018
Contact: Jay Rollins, Communications Producer for Assembly 2018
jrollins@unitedmethodistwomen.org

ONE-DAY REGISTRATIONS AVAILABLE FOR UNITED METHODIST WOMEN ASSEMBLY 2018

A limited number of one-day registrations are available for United Methodist Women’s “The Power of Bold” 2018 quadrennial Assembly at the Greater Columbus Convention Center in Columbus, Ohio, May 18-20.

The “Power of Bold” Assembly celebrates United Methodist Women’s 150th anniversary with plenaries, Town Halls and workshops that will help women turn their faith, hope and love into action on behalf of women, children and youth in their churches, communities, nation and world.

The economical one-day registration fee of $125 is available on a first-come, first-served basis. One-day registration includes a choice of Town Hall events scheduled for the day of registration. Lunch is not included.

“The Power of Bold” Assembly features:

• Engaging daily plenary Bible studies.
• A stellar lineup of renowned speakers for plenaries on Climate Justice, Women and Peace Building, Millennials Organizing for Change, and Interrupting the School-to-Prison Pipeline.
• Interactive exhibits.
• Local women-led “Bold Talks.”
• Fellowship with nearly 8,000 women committed to Christian mission with women, children and youth.

Get ready to answer, “Yes!” to God’s call to mission with women, children and youth at United Methodist Women’s “The Power of Bold” Assembly!

Online registration is available at www.umwassembly.org/register.