Ruth Harris, others tell of journeys toward justice in new book
11/6/2003 News media contact: Linda Bloom · (646) 369-3759 · New York
By United Methodist News Service
When students fought for civil rights and protested the Vietnam War during the 1960s, Ruth Harris was there as a mentor.
But her own defining moment, setting the course for her future career, came earlier and on a different continent, she recalls in a chapter of Journeys That Opened Up the World by Sara M. Evans.
"The journey that really opened up the world for me was being a (Methodist) missionary in China at the time of the revolution," she told United Methodist News Service during a Nov. 5 interview.
Arriving there in 1947, the then-27-year-old Nebraska resident was exposed to the "unimaginable suffering" of the Chinese people following World War II. She taught in a Methodist girls' school in Shanghai, made her first contact with the Student Christian Movement through the YWCA and YMCA, and witnessed the transformation of Chinese life as the revolution progressed until she and other Americans had to leave the country in 1951.
Published by Rutgers University Press, Journeys That Opened Up the World is a collection of memoirs from 16 women who discuss how their involvement in the Student Christian Movement changed their worldviews and motivated them into social activism. Other United Methodist contributors include the Rev. M. Sheila McCurdy and the Rev. Jeanne Audrey Powers. Evans, the author and a professor who teaches women's history at the University of Minnesota, also is United Methodist.
For the 83-year-old Harris, who now lives in Claremont, Calif., that activism was often channeled through Methodist connections, especially as a long-time staff member of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
Her dedication to what became the World Student Christian Federation was recognized by that organization's executive committee during a Nov. 1 program in New York. The federation also launched an endowment fund honoring Harris' commitment to women and social justice.
Harris was national field program director of the Student Volunteer Movement from 1954-59, which involved coordinating programs on campuses throughout the United States. One of the highlights of that period was a 1959 conference on "New Frontiers in Mission," where the Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. and others inspired student commitment to racial justice.
As national secretary for student work with the Methodist Women's Division, from 1960 to 1965, she continued her focus on the involvement of students in justice issues, particularly the civil rights movement and anti-Vietnam war movement.
But it was her work from 1965-90 for the Board of Global Ministries' World Division that led her back around the world. New independent nations were sprouting up in Africa and Asia and the World Student Christian Federation was regionalizing its offices as well. "My job was to provide opportunities for Christian students and Christian faculty to continue to be nurtured," she said.
Harris also was concerned about building leadership among young women and served as the first advisor to the federation's women's commission from 1982-86.
She still believes in the movement's viability and is proud of the support provided by United Methodists over the decades. "I think it's essential for the future of the church that the World Student Christian Federation be supported," added Harris, who has been a longtime member of the federation's trustees in the USA.
Harris said she was "the cheerleader" for the book project, which grew out of a desire to add women's voices to an accumulating history of the student movement.
More information about Journeys that Opened up the World, including ordering information, can be found at http://rutgerspress.rutgers.edu/ online.
Tax-deductible contributions to The Ruth Harris Endowment Fund for Women's Leadership can be mailed to WSCF Trustees, c/o Jorge Domingues, 475 Riverside Dr., Room 1340, New York, NY 10115.
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