Grant F. Anderson Citation for Meritorious Ministry
2003 Honoree of the Queens Federation of Churches

Marjorie Burns

Marjorie Burns serves Christ by serving others, especially through Church Women United, a racially, culturally, theologically inclusive Christian Women's movement, celebrating unity in diversity and working for a world of peace and justice. Founded in 1941, CWU is a movement representing 25 million Protestant, Roman Catholic, Orthodox and other Christian Women.

She chairs the Queens Coordinating Committee of CWU, which is made up of local Units working together in communities to magnify Christ in Celebrations such as World Day of Prayer, May Friendship Day and World Community Day. These celebrations are written by women throughout the world. Special to Queens is the QCC Fellowship in March, and a Retreat Bible Study and Communion in May. Marjorie and her colleagues fulfill this important mission by volunteering and partnering with ministries in the Queens Federation of Churches, Star of the Sea Shelter, New Life, Protestant Services at Creedmoor State Hospital, Girl Scouts, Migrant Workers.

It has been said that volunteering brings benefits to both the society at large and the individual volunteer. It makes important contributions, economically as well as socially. As a United Nations volunteer, through CWU, Marjorie has worked in partnership with that prestigious body, learning that there are many ways of being a volunteer, to give greater visibility to a multi-faceted reality. As a UN volunteer she has been given the opportunity to bring Spiritual Work and Witness into the UN through the link with the Ecumenical Working Group of the National Council of Churches and on the UN planning committee for the September DPI/NGO World Wide Conference, and so much more.

A member of the Governing Council of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing, Marjorie was recently elected to the Board of Directors of the Queens Federation of Churches. She serves as Mission Advocate to the American Baptist Churches of Metro NY and, at Amity Baptist Church, Jamaica, on the Board of Deaconesses, Board of the Human Service Commission as Mission Outreach Chair, and Board of Christian Education. She is on the Board of Christian Education of the Empire Baptist Missionary Convention.

She proclaims: "I love the Lord, and in any way, shape, form or fashion that I can share His love with others, I am so willing." She is blessed with a supportive family, Allen and Audrey Johnson, Daughter Lucy Denise Burns who has relocated to Florida, and a great extended family; and with a treasury of friends that she grew up with, and others who became friends across the years, and new friendships that are cherished. All to God's magnificence.