April 25 - Dr. Chomingwen Pond

I have to break my rule about names. Just as Iva Joyce Hill is a church saint likely to be left untouched by those powers that distrust me (“I’m not really paranoid. It’s the paranoids who are out to get me.” – from a 1970s’ poster), so is the Rev. Dr. Chomingwen Pond one of those kinds of saints.

Chomee entered the Wisconsin Conference the year I was ordained Elder, a status she achieved two years later as the first woman so ordained in what was then the East Wisconsin Conference. Although women had been licensed Local Pastors for many years, she was the first to be a member of the conference with the right to vote. She earned a PhD and taught theology at Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, OH.

A missionary at heart, she served in the inner city of Milwaukee, a native American community in northern Wisconsin, and in Africa. Among her African assignments was teaching at the then newly formed Africa University.

It was she who asked me to befriend the two she knew through Africa University.

Her presence in Florida at the time of General Conference was unfortunate because her brother who lived just north of Tampa passed away and she came down for a memorial service for him. Despite that circumstance, she asked to have a chance to meet the former students and I gladly helped.

My GPS took me up crowded Highway 19 that Wednesday afternoon. I vowed to check maps from now on!

We got back to Tampa by a much quicker route. To accommodate for her arthritis, we found a wheel chair for her at the Convention Center. She kindly took my travel case in her lap and away we went. We avoided legislative committees because those rooms were already crowded. We spent part of the afternoon cruising the display area. She spoke at length with people working on inter-cultural ministries, particularly with Native Americans. She also was delighted to meet the son of one of her former co-workers and discussed United Methodist Development Fund and other GBGM projects with him and other staff.

By then it was time to meet her two friends down in my “office.”

One was unable to join us because of meetings he had to attend as delegation head, credentials committee, etc. The other was there and gave us the rest of his afternoon discussing with Chomee and me his life and ministry. It was obvious from his description of his conference that Africa University had a great impact.

The three of us went to supper and it was his turn to press us for information on various issues before the General Conference. He asked great, incisive questions and pushed us to document our information. Chomee was so proud and I was tremendously impressed. I added him to my list those who will be known as saints of the whole Church soon. (Both of them will be embarrassed with my opinion of them.)

We finished supper in time to head back to catch some of the presentation of “The Call to Action” that was intended to open the discussion of this major proposal coming from the Council of Bishops, the inter-board coordinating agency (the name of which changes quadrennium to quadrennium) and a third caucus, pastors of the mega-churches.

Rather than simply making a motion on the floor to consider the legislative committee report on “The Call to Action,” the gathering was turned into a professionally produced PR program with speeches, multi-media presentations, special lighting effects, and a quasi-worship atmosphere.

Chomee and I looked at each other after about ten minutes of this nonsense, feeling the mega-church pastors had been used, and knew it was time to leave before we either broke out laughing or started making snarky remarks. Chomee never makes snarky remarks.