Eunice Mathews honored

It's not every day that the United Methodist Church gets to honor one of its leading lights before her years of history-making have passed into memory. Yet the 998 delegates to General Conference paid tribute to Eunice Jones Mathews-a living legend in the church's history of mission-by celebrating her 90th birthday with a "Happy Birthday" chorus and a reception. Legislative proceedings were suspended as an energetic Eunice Mathews was warmly welcomed by the international assembly with a standing ovation.

"I do not have to be identified as the daughter of (evangelist) E. Stanley Jones, nor do I have to be identified as the wife of my husband (Bishop James K. Mathews).but I do have permission to be myself, and this is in the freedom of Jesus Christ."

Mrs. Mathews' birthday marks another milestone in the life of the denomination, as a record 188 delegates from outside the United States are attending the 2004 assembly. This landmark figure is an indirect tribute to Mrs. Mathews' life of missionary work.

She was born on April 29, 1914, to Methodism's premier missionary couple of the twentieth century, E. Stanley Jones and Mabel Lossing Jones. Growing up in Lucknow, India, she witnessed her parents plant the seeds of God's word and nurture them into sizable, self-sustaining Methodist communities.

She assisted her father, whose lectures and writings took him around the world, as he revolutionized missionary thinking by encouraging individuals to receive Christ within the framework of their indigenous contexts. It was while accompanying her father on a lecture circuit in India that Eunice met James K. Mathews, whom she married June 1, 1940.

Sixty-three years later, Mrs. Mathews and her husband, a retired bishop and former associate general secretary at the Board of Missions of the Methodist Church, have proclaimed the Gospel of Jesus Christ on six continents, ordering their lives by the scriptural mandate, "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations" (Matthew 28:19). 

Tracy McNeal is a staff writer with the Communications Department of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

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