United Women in Faith (Formerly United Methodist Women) members put faith, hope, and love into action in their churches and communities.
We seek your ideas for bringing women together for support, fellowship, spiritual growth, and doing mission together. We offer our resources and assistance to you as you make these ideas a reality. To share an idea, click here to contact Patti Marsh Cagle, LHUMC UMW President
Enjoying Each Other in Sisterhood
Our retreats, book discussions, and fund-raising projects are also good ways to connect with women in our LHUMC Community.
ISSUE STUDIES
In the 21st century, the world needs women of faith putting their faith into action.
Concerns for the well-being of children, the elderly and disabled
Homelessness and poverty
New waves of Immigration
Threats to the environment
Health care and education
Human Trafficking
Human Rights
International threats to peace
Learning about our Faith
UMW supports efforts to enlighten ourselves about our faith and about how we can put our faith into action.
Below are some examples:
From time-to-time, UMW hosts speakers on issues of importance today. Watch the LHUMC weekly E-newsletters for these events.
In addition, UMW supplies books for studying issues. (There is a shelf in the Fireside Room devoted to UMW materials. It’s just inside the door on the right by the fireplace.)
During 2021, our areas of focus have been Racial and Environmental Justice.
Supporting Missionaries and Projects
UMW has provided support to LHUMC activities, such as the Joyce Uptown Foodshelf, the LHUMC Preschool, LHUMC Mission trips for Junior and Senior High Students, the Theater Ministry, Re-U-Nite, and Band of Mothers. We also provided blankets for youth transitioning out of homelessness at 66 West.
Regional Missionaries build relationships with Methodist, United Methodist, ecumenical and grassroots programs that focus on impacting poverty through enhancing the capacities of local women leaders and supporting economic development programs to provide women with the tools required to make positive, measurable change in their communities.
History & Legacy of United Methodist Women
For more than a century, women in the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren traditions have led a struggle for human rights and social justice. The generation of women who founded the early missionary societies developed powerful networks and organizational structures to help women attain full participation in the life of the church and society.
In the early years of the women’s mission organizations, the focus was on sending missionaries and helping to change the lives of women and girls in foreign lands. They incorporated the values of home and family into public life, as they addressed issues of poverty, child labor, immigration, migrant labor, family life, racial discrimination, full clergy rights for women, and many other social ills of the day..
Many problems faced by the women at the turn of the century have reemerged in our own time with a new and demanding urgency: new waves of immigration, homelessness, racial divisions, threats to the environment, substance abuse and addiction, lack of affordable health care, concerns for the well-being of children and the elderly, public education, questions about women’s roles in society, and world peace.
Because of the faithfulness and courage of the millions of women who prayed, planned, organized, marched, petitioned, labored, and supported the work of the early missionary societies, the lives of countless individuals, especially women and children, have been irrevocably changed. Women, children and youth in our generation, and the ones that will follow us, are living the legacy of the women’s missionary movement of the 19th century.
We have much to be proud of and a great deal to celebrate as we continue the journey begun almost 150 years ago by our faithful and courageous foremothers.
