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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. |
