THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606160015
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY NANCY LEWIS, CORESPONDENT
DATELINE: VIRGINIA BEACH LENGTH: 58 lines
It was indeed a heavenly choir - one so colorful it might have slid in on a rainbow.
Seventeen petite ladies of Korean descent rustled onto the raised platform at the Pavilion Convention Center garbed in vibrant hues of red, yellow, green and pink, and raised their voices in prayerful song Saturday.
The glossy satin and shimmering chiffon ``han boks'' worn by Richmond's Emmaus United Methodist Church choir for the noon worship service was just one example of how the spotlight shone on minorities and women at the four-day United Methodist Church state conference, which concludes today.
About 3,000 clergy and lay leaders attended the 216th annual gathering.
In an unusual move earlier Saturday, Methodists acted on a motion from the floor and overrode their financial committee's recommendations, adding $20,000 to the 1997 budget for a full-time campus ministry at the predominantly black Virginia State University in Petersburg.
``This just doesn't happen,'' said the Rev. Alvin Horton, communications director for the conference. ``They usually defer to the committee. It's the conference saying, 'This is so important to us, we're going to do it anyway.' ''
``The mood of the Virginia Conference - its racial consciousness - has significantly changed over the years,'' said Dr. Dee Pendley, president of the conference's board of communications. ``For the conference to take something out of finance with no opposition'' is rare, he added.
The state university ministry, now part time, will become full time July 1, 1997.
On Friday, the group had acted unanimously on a floor motion by the Rev. Youtha Hardman-Cromwell to have its Leadership Development Institute look into why a disproportionate number of female clergy seem to be leaving the Virginia Conference.
``What are the reasons when you look at the lists you see more women's names?'' asked Hardman-Cromwell, a professor of divinity at Howard University in Washington, D.C.
She said that one-third of Virginia's Methodist ministers listed as on leave or transferred are apparently women, and half of those transferred out of state are women. ``It seems to be a pattern. . . . Are there systemic factors?''
Hardman-Cromwell's motion was seconded by about six other women.
The Rev. Helene Miller said after the unanimous vote, ``We want to make sure we're not doing something as a church'' to cause women clergy to leave.
Women make up about one-tenth of the state church's clergy.
In other action Saturday, the conference unanimously nominated the Rev. Ray W. Chamberlain Jr. to the episcopacy of the United Methodist Church's Southeast Jurisdiction. Chamberlain, superintendent of the state church's Richmond district, will compete with 15 nominees to fill seven bishopric vacancies at a South Carolina conference in July.
The conference also voted down by a wide margin a resolution that would have financially penalized three of the five Methodist colleges in Virginia - Virginia Wesleyan, Randolph-Macon College and Randolph-Macon Woman's College - for allowing keg parties on campus.
KEYWORDS: UNITED METHODIST CHURCH STATE CONFERENCE by CNB