Central UMC to host state women's convention

By By Ida Brown / staff writer
October 8, 2004
An estimated 300 United Methodist Church women from across the state will convene in Meridian this weekend.
Central United Methodist Church is hosting the state conference for Mississippi United Methodist Women. It begins today and continues Saturday. This is the first time in 10 years Meridian has served as host of the conference.
The two-day meeting was scheduled to begin today with a communion sermon led by Bishop Hope Morgan Ward of the Mississippi Area of The United Methodist Church. Ward also will lead the sacrament of the Lord's Supper.
Reared in rural eastern North Carolina, Ward received a scholarship to Duke University in 1969. She spent the fall semester of 1971 engaged in the study of British literature, history, and political science at Wroxton College in Oxfordshire, England, and the summer of 1972 in archaeological study and field work in Meiron, Israel.
After graduation from Duke, Ward became youth director of Fairmont United Methodist Church in Raleigh. N.C. In 1974, she participated in her first mission experience as a volunteer in Cochabamba and Montero, Bolivia.
While continuing graduate studies, Ward and her husband became teaching parents for residents of the Methodist Home for Children. The couple have led creative collaborations of the United Methodist Church and the public schools of North Carolina, and served in workteam and mission endeavors in Central and South America and the Middle East, as well as in Appalachia, Florida, South Carolina, North Carolina and Washington, D.C. They have two children.
Ward's sermon will focus on the conference's theme.
Today's event will culminate with a reception hosted by the District United Methodist Women.
The conference is scheduled to resume Saturday, beginning at 8:30 a.m. Plans include business meetings, workshops, and a luncheon.