COMMISSION ON THE STATUS & ROLE OF WOMEN (COSROW)
The Commission on the Status & Role of Women (COSROW) of the Upper New York Annual Conference advocates for the full and equal participation of women across all areas of church life. It educates and equips leaders throughout the region while promoting the equal calling of all people as children of God.
UNDERSTANDING COSROW
​The Commission on the Status & Role of Women (COSROW) is made up of women and men, lay and clergy. Its work is mandated by the Book of Discipline. To that end, COSROW observes, listens, records, reports, and educates.
The Bible overwhelmingly reports the importance of justice to God, so we can’t help but wonder:​
• Why God's Church continues to portray primarily a male God, when God is a Spirit and spirits have no gender. ​• Why some people in God's Church so often set more rigorous standards for women who are mothers than for men who are fathers. ​• Why many churches still think that the ability of a pastor to care for a church has to do with their gender. • Why most "tall steeple" churches are pastored by men, most district superintendents are men (76% in the US, 67% in the Upper New York Conference), and most church administrators are men, despite the fact that women comprise around 60% of active United Methodists. • What it is about the Church that leads some Christian men to assume they are brighter and more qualified to speak to issues than Christian women, particularly at Annual Conference Session, where 67% of speakers at the Uniting Session of the Upper New York Conference were male. ​• The question before us is how to help the whole Church be more faithful to the God of justice and mercy. The discrepancies between what is and what should be clearly illustrate the need for the work of COSROW.
