Episcopal Press and News
Women's Office Staff Target Three Areas
Episcopal News Service. January 21, 1988 [88010]
NEW YORK (DPS, Jan. 21) -- With three consultants now aboard, the office of Women in Mission and Ministry is placing its energy and resources behind some major program initiatives.
Ann Smith, coordinator of the Office, announced this month that the Rev. Linda L. Grenz and Ms. Edna M. Brown have been hired to coordinate the Office networks and program and the Women of Vision program of the Episcopal Church Women. They join Ms. Claire Woodley who serves part-time as a consultant working on the Ecumenical Decade programs.
Grenz has been hired for one year to help integrate the other Church Center programs with those of the Women's Office. She will also assist in coordinating programs, developing networks, and facilitating the participation of women in the work of the national Church.
The WIMM Office sought to increase the presence of ordained women at the Church Center and found Grenz's background as a parish rector and consultant trainer well suited to this position. Smith said she has served as a member of the Women's Task force, as vice-president of the Episcopal Women's Caucus, and as a founding member of the Council of Women's Ministries and of the O.P.E.N. newsletter of the Women's Ordained Professional Episcopal Network. She has also served as a trainer for the leadership skills program of the Women's Office.
Grenz was deputy to the 1982 General Convention. She was appointed to serve on the State of the Church Committee where she was a member of a sub-committee on minorities. As a member of the State of the Church Committee, she served on the Presiding Bishop's Advisory Council. The diocese of Delaware, where Grenz has been rector and associate priest for the past 10 years, has also used Grenz's skills on the commission on ministry, diocesan council, administrative committee, finance and property committee, bishop's strategy committee, and as area coordinator for witness.
Women of Vision is a grassroots training program sponsored by the WIMM Office and the Episcopal Church Women. Brown was the unanimous choice of both the ECW and the WIMM Office to provide the professional training support for this program.
She will be responsible for coordinating and conduction eight presenter training sessions for the eight domestic provinces (Province Nine piloted the program in 1987). Each provincial meeting will train 35 women to be presenters of the Women of Vision program.
She has a background in training for various governmental agencies, social service agencies, and educational institutions. She served as grants contract manager for the Florida State Department of Health and Rehabilitative Services and is a consultant trainer for the Grantsmanship Training Center in Los Angeles. Brown holds a Masters Degree in social foundations in education from the University of California.
"Brown brings her experience as a trainer for the Leadership Skills program, as a consultant involved in the development of the Women of Vision program, and as a consultant to Total Ministry Task Force. She also brings the perspective of a woman of color to the WOV program and the WIMM Office," said Smith.
Woodley has been working on the Ecumenical Decade -- the Churches in Solidarity with Women -- and as a contributing writer and advisor to the Journal of Women's Ministries since September, 1987. She has worked with WIMM in a variety of capacities over the last five years; and is working on her masters of divinity degree at Union Theological Seminary.
She has since joined the WIMM trainer consultants as part of the Leadership Training program and has continued to act as an advisor to the WIMM staff on program development and mission focus. Her publications include "Out of Nairobi: A New ERA for Women in the Church." Woodley lives in the East Village of New York City with her husband, Michael Aitchison. She is a seminarian at St. Clement, Manhattan.