wfn.org | [PCUSANEWS] Celebrating Margaret Flory

[PCUSA NEWS <PCUSA.NEWS@ECUNET.ORG>]

Note #8250 from PCUSA NEWS to PRESBYNEWS:

04251
May 27, 2004

Celebrating Margaret Flory

WCC chief joins Presbyterians in fete for mission pioneer

by Alexa Smith

LOUISVILLE - More than 150 Presbyterians and other Christians from around the
world gathered at Riverside Church in New York City earlier this month to
celebrate the 90th birthday of Margaret Flory.

	Flory, a legend in Presbyterian mission circles, retired 24 years
ago. Yet the theme of the May 14-15 celebration - "Mission in the 21st
Century: What Are the New Frontiers?" - suggested just how ahead of her time
she was.

	The keynote speaker was the Rev. Samuel Kobia, general secretary of
the World Council of Churches (WCC). When he was a young man, Kobia was one
of the first international participants in the Frontier Internship in
Mission, a program Flory founded while on the staff of the United
Presbyterian Church in New York, which she served for 36 years.

	Flory, known for a keen understanding of world affairs and a knack
for facilitating interpersonal relationships between people in different
countries and cultures, created programming that was visionary in its day.
She created the Junior Year Abroad program for college students when only a
few U.S. institutions sent students overseas - and most of those limited
their programs to Europe. Through the church, Flory scattered young people
around the globe.

	She later initiated programs including Frontier Interns; Frontiers in
Mission (still in operation, headquartered in Geneva, Switzerland); the
Overseas Scholarship Program, which brought foreign teachers and pastors to
the United States for study; and Bi-National Servants, a program for people
who have lived in two cultures and want to share the experience in a third
culture.

	"In ecumenical discourse today, we often speak of how essential it is
to connect what goes on globally to the local context," Kobia said. "... And
this communication between the global and the local must become reciprocal:
The community or congregation of believers, in its turn, must inform dialogue
and decision-making at the national, regional and international levels.

	"For Margaret, this insight is nothing new. She has always sensed
that the most distant needs and aspirations of humanity exist in continuity
with those closest to home - and that the two must become one if Christian
unity is ever to be achieved."

	Kobia told his listeners that, while the 20th century was dominated
by the politics of ideology, the 21st is likely to be dominated by "the
politics of identity" and such questions as: "Who are we? What is the meaning
of our lives and of our relationships to God and one another? How can we
explore the 'depth dimension' of human existence?"

	While spirituality begins in a profound encounter with the self, he
said, it doesn't end there.

	"From the beginning, we must be prepared to move beyond self into
close community, and from there, into action in the world God loves. In the
solitude of self we experience a yearning for companionship; in community we
find the desire and commitment to help build a more just and caring world
community. And in our interaction with the world and its many people, the
Holy Spirit will affirm our identity and give us a place to stand."

	Testimonials rolled in during the two day event from people whose
lives were changed by Flory and her programming.

	The Rev. Syngman Rhee, a former Presbyterian Church (USA) moderator,
told Flory, "The seeds of the faith you have planted all these years are
bringing wonderful fruition everywhere, as church leaders, educators,
peacemakers and justice makers."

	The Rev. Clifton Kirkpatrick, the stated clerk of the PCUSA, said: "I
cannot think of anyone who made a greater contribution to shaping a
generation of leaders in the church ecumenical than (Flory), and I am
grateful to God for that."

	Flory has stayed busy over the past decade. She has written three
books. She attended the dedication of an international conference center in
Geneva named in her honor. In 1998, she spoke at Tokyo Christian Women's
University, marking the 50th anniversary of her hiring as a teacher there.
She has visited Cuba twice in recent years. In 2003, Stony Point Conference
Center gathered 130 former participants in the Junior Year Abroad Program for
an event in her honor. And she has taught classes at Brevard College in North
Carolina.

	Kobia closed his remarks by reminding his listeners of the Great
Commission (Matthew 28:19), in which Christ admonishes his followers to go
and "make disciples of all nations."

	"It is a relief to know that we are not commissioned to try to make
another Margaret Flory," Kobia said. "The church is equipped to help make
disciples, but God alone can raise up a prophet in the land.

	"God raises up prophets in the strangest places ... On a hillside by
a burning bush, in the midst of war or racial oppression, in exile far from
home ... or (as in Flory's case) in Athens, Ohio, among the halls of
academe."

Parts of this story were based on material provided by Leon Howell.

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