Welcome
This site has been created to promote participation in the activities of United Methodist Women in the Northern Illinois Conference. It is designed to be an important communication tool, providing needed information and resources.
Greetings from your New President, Rita L. Smith
Greetings my sisters in this New Year. I greet you with a loving spirit as we work together putting “Faith, Hope, Love in Action” in 2011. As your president, I want you to know, it is an honor and privilege to serve this great conference in this position, for I know whose shoulders I stand on. To mention a few, my mother Fannie M.T. Simpkins, from Resurrection UMW Ethylene Jackson, from the Chicago Northwestern District Vivian Matthews (Mandell UMW) and Jean Dillner (River Forest UMC) and from the conference level Alice Teemer and globally, the staff at Women’s Division.
I thank all the (s)heroes who have led this conference thus far. I would be remiss not to mention Rev. Dr. Donald F. Guest and the clergy for their support and encouragement through the years. To share a little about myself, I was born and raised in Harlem, N.Y. where I attended St. Mark’s United Methodist Church.
A product of the New York City public schools, I am a graduate of Tuskegee University and received a M.Ed. from the University of Illinois at Champaign. At Resurrection UMC (the former Gammon UMC) I have served in numerous positions including Lay Leader. I authored the grant “Kids are Peacemakers” for the Bishop’s Initiative on Children and Poverty in which the award was one in 31 nationally. A life member and past president of Chicago Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Inc. and immediate past chaplain of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. Chicago Alumnae Chapter.
Continue reading the entire greeting here.
View the February/March 2012 UMW WEB News, including the flyer (PDF) for the March 16-17 2012 Prayer Ministry at Our Saviour's UMC in Schaumburg, IL.