THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, July 10, 1994 TAG: 9407080310
SECTION: SUFFOLK SUN PAGE: 10 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Cover Story
SOURCE: BY PHYLLIS SPEIDELL, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: SUFFOLK LENGTH: Long : 128 lines
FROM A SHY Indiana farm girl who shuddered in fear at the thought of giving an oral report in school to the lay leader of 350,000 United Methodists was a leap Darlene Amon took 40 years to make.
When Amon was elected lay leader of the Virginia Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church last month, she became the first woman to hold that position in the conference's 212-year history.
Amon, 54, is a Bennetts Creek resident, a lifelong Methodist and a member of Monumental United Methodist Church in Portsmouth.
From a spare bedroom-turned-office in the Suffolk home she shares with her husband, Ollie, a deputy comptroller for the Navy medical command in Norfolk, Amon puts in a full work week.
But she never gets a paycheck.
A former accounting supervisor and credit union manager, she began volunteering with the church about 12 years ago.
``Now, I don't have time for a job because I am a professional volunteer,'' Amon said. ``Ollie says I work more hours for nothing than he does working.
``I am not sure how this all happened. It just sort of evolved.''
A past president of the Virginia Conference of United Methodist Women and a current director on the General Board of Global Ministries of the United Methodist Church, Amon was urged by acquaintances and colleagues to submit her name for the lay leader position, an elected post.
``When I prayed about it, I seemed to have been led in that direction,'' Amon said.
Was gender ever an issue in her election? Amon said she did not think so.
``Some of the men may have been surprised, but I have had more compliments from the men than the women,'' she said. ``The women were more expecting it because I had been more visible with the United Methodist Women.''
Her selection seemed a natural to Donald H. Traylor, district superintendent for the Portsmouth district of the United Methodist Church.
``I was not at all surprised by her election because there is no person more capable that we could have picked,'' Traylor said. ``Darlene has been involved on the state and national level, and it seemed to be a natural selection.''
Amon was gratified that her election was announced to a standing ovation at Norfolk's Scope, where the annual conference was held June 19-22.
She recalled the pride she felt at the words of presiding Bishop Thomas B. Stockton.
``We are not electing her because she is a woman,'' Stockton said. ``We are electing her for her abilities.''
The Virginia Conference is the largest of 68 United Methodist conferences in the United States, which together include nearly nine million Methodists.
A conference lay leader is elected annually and may serve no more than six terms.
Amon sees her duties clearly.
``As a representative lay person, I make sure that the lay people are involved not only in the ministries of the church but also the decision-making process,'' she said. ``We are all called to be ministers, some ordained, some lay.''
A native of Wabash, Ind., Amon graduated from the College of Lake County in Illinois.
She settled in Hampton Roads permanently 20 years ago, first in Portsmouth and then in the quiet Bennetts Harbor neighborhood.
``I told Ollie I was raised on a farm and needed to get out of the city,'' she said.
Amon enjoys being a doting grandmother and tries to save at least one day a week for her youngest grandchild, 1-year-old Jerry Lee Cunningham III, better known as Trey.
``I could not do all this without a supportive family,'' Amon said.
During her years as a church volunteer, Amon has traveled to work sessions in Hong Kong, Singapore, Seoul, Guatemala and Bermuda.
In August, she will be part of a 24-person team representing the church on a two-week mission to Russia. Amon will head a smaller, all-female group that will spend some of the time in Pyatigorsk, about 1,000 miles south of Moscow, learning more about women's issues in Russia.
No longer the school girl who became physically ill when forced to speak in front of a class, Amon now relishes her frequent speaking engagements.
``I enjoy getting into it now,'' she said. ``The Lord gives you confidence to do these things.''
Less than a year ago, feminists from the Methodist and Presbyterian denominations made headlines at a conference in Minneapolis, where they addressed spiritual issues from a feminine perspective.
One of the more controversial concepts discussed at the conference was the possibility of a female personification of the divine, called Sophia.
Amon feels strongly that the conference controversies were sensationalized and have little, if any, effect on most Methodists.
``I think nine out of 10 had never heard of Sophia before,'' she said.
Amon is happy, however, to see more women developing leadership roles in the church.
``My greatest education has been through the United Methodist Women in leadership development and in faith development,'' she said. ``When your faith is strengthened, you realize that you have to put that faith into action.''
Lee Sheaffer, the council director for the Virginia Annual Conference, has seen Amon put her faith into action as the chairwoman of the church's board of laity.
``We have worked closely on programs to empower the laity to be involved in the church,'' Sheaffer said. ``The church had been masculine-driven for so long, her election is a natural development of the last 20 years, when women have had more of a chance to lead.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo on cover by ERIC THINGSTAD
Darlene Amon strolls through the grounds of her home in Bennetts
Harbor with her youngest grandson, Jerry Lee Cunningham III.
Photos by ERIC THINGSTAD
Darlene Amon, the first woman to be named lay leader in the Virginia
Conference of the United Methodist Church, spends a day with her
1-year-old grandson, Jerry Lee Cunningham III.
Amon prefers the atmosphere of Bennetts Harbor to Portsmouth, where
she and her husband, Ollie, first settled in Hampton Roads. ``I told
Ollie I was raised on a farm and needed to get out of the city,''
she said.
``When your faith is strengthened, you realize that you have to put
that faith into action,'' says Amon, who once feared public
speaking.
Amon, a former credit union manager, puts in a full work week in the
bedroom-turned-office in her home, at right. ``Now, I don't have
time for a job because I am a professional volunteer,'' she says.
But she tries to save one day a week for her grandson, Trey, who is
by her side.
by CNB