Settlement Houses

This is some more of the article from New World Outlook

The Settlement House Movement in United Methodism

Church Women's Role

   The settlement house movement coincided with the formation of the Woman's Home Missionary Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the 1880 and the Women's Parsonage and Home Mission Society of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1890.  Soon, hundreds of local home mission societies were organized across both branches of Methodism, African-American Methodist women were also organizing and finding their voice during this time.

   The women's home mission societies were influenced by the Social Gospel movement and a growing awareness of the church's role in society.  Women in both the Northern and Southern United States were concerned about immigration, industrialization, and social change Poverty, child labor, unequal pay, and other social issues were of concern to the growing city mission field.

   As home missions developed, the idea of the settlement houses as a place of mission, spiritual development, and outreach became increasingly attractive.  Leaders of women's societies -- such as Belle Bennett, Lucinda Helm, and Lucy Webb Hayes -- admired the work of Jane Addams and Graham Taylor in Chicago.  While the first Methodist settlement house were in the North, in Boston and Chicago, Wesley Community House, the first settlement house in the South, opened in Nashville in 1901.  It was soon followed by houses in Augusta, Dallas, and Atlanta.  In 1903 Bethlehem Center in Augusta became the first Methodist settlement house focused on the needs of the African-American community.  It was followed by Bethlehem centers established in Chattanooga in 1905 and Nashville in 1914.

This article is from the March/April 2014  New World Outlook

the article is written by Michael Feely, he is the director of Mission Advancement at Henderson Settlement in Frakes, Kentucky

Interested in this article?  Want to know more about the Settlement House Movement?

then pick up this next book for our April book discussion.

Lifting Up hope, Living Out Justice

by Alice G. Knotts

Soup Supper and Discussion

Tuesday, April 8th 6:00 p.m.

in the Church Parlor

Please let us know if you are coming sign up sheets at Welcome Table between services and copies of the book to check out at the UMW bookshelf in the parlor.

 UMW are hosting a 

Maundy Thursday Breakfast and Service

9:30 in Fellowship Hall

A Continental breakfast will be served followed by our speaker

Rev. Katurah Johnson speaking on Settlement Houses

This event is open to everyone.

Crafting Weekend

Friday April, 25th 5 - 9

Saturday April, 26th 8-3

Join us to fun, fellowship and finishing up projects

It has just been announced that they are opening up one day tickets to assembly for those who can not spend the whole weekend. 

Check it out here.Unitedmethodistwomen.org

Mother Daughter Tea
May 4th 1:30 - 3:30
tickets $5

 On the mission trip I was reading our next book for discussion Lifting Up hope, Living Out Justice. 

by Alice Knotts.  This book also ties into our Lenten Breakfast subject the Stewart house,with speaker, Rev. Katurah Johnson, and a mission project later this spring at the Stewart House in Gary working on a community garden.

 While I was away my copy of New World Outlook came, in this issue there is an article on the settlement house movement in United Methodism.  I will be sharing this article with you on my next few blog post.

The Settlement House Movement in United Methodism

by Mike Feely

In United Methodism we celebrate out connectional system-the way our members are liked together through mission, outreach, and evangelism.  Some of our historical connections are with mission institutions founded in the early 1900s during the settlement house movement.  The include the Bethlehem centers and Wesley houses, along with schools at Henderson Settlement and Red Bird Mission-- institutions that reflect the hard work of the Women's Home Mission societies and the deaconess movement. 

  The settlement house movement began in England as a means of coping with societal changes stemming form the Industrial Revolution, which caused a large population shift from rural to urban areas.  British social reformers were increasingly concerned about the desperate need for social services among the masses of people living in industrialized urban areas.  Settlement houses emerged as community centers to help solve these problems.

Early Settlement Houses

 One of the first settlement houses was Toynbee Hall, established in the East End of London in 1884.  It offered adult education classes, legal clinics, and family support.  Similar houses soon sprang up across Britain and other parts of Europe.  Settlement house workers lived in the neighborhoods where they worked, which brought them into regular contact with the poor.

  In the 1880s, the settlement house movement crossed the Atlantic to the United States, where settlement houses were first established in Boston.  Then, Jane Addams and Ellen Starr founded Hull House in Chicago, Modeled  in part on Toynbee Hall, Hull House was designed to reach out to the new immigrants communities in Chicago's 19th Ward with a range of classes and services.  Addams saw every immigrant as "either a citizen or a potential citizen" and designed her programs accordingly.  By 1916, there were more than 500 social settlement houses modeled on Hull House in the United States.

I will post more of this article next week, if you would like read more now it can be found in the New World Outlook March/April 2014.

This article was by Michael Feely who is the director of Mission Advancement at Henderson Settlement ,in Frakes, Kentucky.

Book Discussion

April 8th   6:00 p.m.

Church Parlor

Sign up sheets at Welcome Table
please sign up so we have an idea of how much food to have ready. 

Lifting Up hope, Living Out Justice

by Alice G. Knotts 

Our Lenten Breakfast is Maundy Thursday 

April 17th, at 9:30 in Fellowship Hall

This year our speaker is Rev. Katurah Johnson

This event is open to everyone.

Before flying off to a tropical paradise for Spring Break, stop in at The Shop for all your spring vacation apparel.  The Shop is now full stocked with clothing, shoes, and jewelry that showcase the fresh new color of Spring.

Crafting Weekend
Our crafting weekend was a success, so we decided to have a weekend each month. 
 Our next weekend will be April 25th 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.
April 26th 8 a.m. to 3p.m.
Sign up sheets will be a the Welcome Table between services.

Save the Date
May 4th  1:30 - 3:30
Mother - Daughter Tea
$5.00 Tickets will go on sale April 6th

Business Meeting

March 5th, 1:00 p.m. in the Parlor

Bag Sale ends at Noon on March 5th.

The Shop will close at noon on March 5th and re-open on Friday, March, 7th with our spring apparel. 

Ash Wednesday Service

March 5th, at 7:00 p.m.

Daylight Saving Time

Saturday, March, 8th

Don't forget to Spring your clock forward!

Karen Johnson Ujereh

Karen Johnson Ujereh is the missionary who connected us with this program so we could support 4 women this year.
Opportunity:
 Give Through UMC Microfinance Program

Around the globe, more than 3 billion people live on less that $2.50 per day.  Many depend on self-employment for their income.  Weather by managing a simple store, a home-operated bakery, selling goats or providing seamstress services, people use their God given ability to provide for their families.  But often they are unable to grow their businesses due to the lack of capital and basic financial services.

The United Methodist Church is partnering with the Foundation for International Community Assistance (FINCA) to bring financial services opportunities to low-income communities in places where Methodist churches already are hard at work, and sharing the Good News of Jesus Christ.

One such place is the Malawi Provisional Annual Conference, where Karen Johnson Ujereh, Global Ministeries' missionary, serves as director of the United Methodist Malawi Microfinance Program in Blantyre, Malawi's second-largest city and commercial capital.  The Malawi mocrofinance program is a pilot joint venture of Global Ministries, the Large Church Mission Connection in the United States and the Malawi Provisional Annual Conference.

Read more about the United Methodist Microfinance Connection at www.umcmicrofinance.org  

Book Discussion

April 8th

Lifting Up hope, Living Out Justice

by: Alice G. Knotts

4 copies can be found in the UMW bookcase in the Parlor