April 22 - One of the Saints

(First written May 4 for UM-Insight, revised 5/15, based on event of 4/22 but not yet published)

It was 1972 and General Conference was in full swing when Iva Joyce Hill from the Board of Missions noticed that delegates from the churches in Latin America were sitting there with frustrated looks on their faces.

"They were having a hard time understanding what was going on. While each knew some English, they were unable to keep up with the discussion in the plenary," she told me the day the orientation for overseas delegates began. “I realized something had to change before the next conference.”

The 1976 General Conference accepted French, Portuguese and Spanish translators from the Board of Missions who sat within the bar of the conference with the delegates, whispering the proceedings. Non-English delegates were finally allowed to have voice through translators.

"But some leaders still thought it was folly and an unnecessary expense," she said.

By 1984 booths with translators and earphones for delegates who didn't speak English were introduced, and German was added as a translated language. In 2008, the Advance DCA was printed in French, German and Portuguese.

By the 2012 General Conference there were 150 professionals and volunteers translating American Sign Language, French, German, Kiswahili, Korean, Portuguese, Russian, and Spanish for the Legislative Committees and Plenary sessions.

"I am glad to see that now it is a natural part of what we do here, and, on top of that," she added with a big smile, “the current leadership has been extremely supportive. I'm very proud of our church for that."

Thank you, Joyce Hill.