All articles in this series may be found here as they are published.
In addition to regionalization and revised Social Principles, the 2024 General Conference marked a number of shifts in the work of the denomination churchwide.
A very significant shift is in the ecumenical and interfaith work of the denomination. The Office of Christian Unity and Interfaith Relations (OCUIR), part of the staff of the Council of Bishops, has been renamed and repurposed as the Advisory Committee on Ecumenical and Interfaith Relationships (ACEIR, Paragraphs 437, 438 and others). While the Advisory Committee retains staff, its role is now more explicitly advisory to bishops who are understood to be the primary agents for building ecumenical and interfaith relationships. Decentralizing the ecumenical responsibilities of the denomination further, district superintendents are now also required to provide leadership in developing ecumenical and interfaith ministries within their districts (Paragraph 419.1). ACEIR staff will not be members of the implementing committees for full communion agreements with full communion partners as OCUIR staff had been in the past. In addition, the budget for the Interdenominational Cooperation Fund, which supports the work of ACEIR, was cut by over 70 percent. Funding for staff and activities of ACEIR during this quadrennium (2025-2028) will come primarily by spending down the reserves of the Interdenominational Cooperation Fund that had built up during the pandemic because of severely limited travel.
How the denomination carries out and manages some of its fundraising has also shifted. United Methodist Student Day will now be observed in May, around the time of graduation for many students, rather than in November (Paragraph 263.4). The purpose of the funds administered by the General Board of Higher Education and Ministry for Native American Ministries Sunday has been expanded to include recruitment of Native American students preparing for ordained or licensed ministry, not simply their theological education (Paragraph 263.6). And, general agencies are now able to receive funding directly from individual or local churches, and can appeal to donors directly for funding of outside of the budget set by the General Conference. General Agencies will provide an annual public accounting of their fundraising activities and receipts at the direction of the General Council on Finance and Administration (Paragraph 811.5).
The denomination also made new commitments to inclusiveness throughout every level and in all agencies and institutions related to United Methodist Church. “Called to Inclusiveness,” (Paragraph 140) the final section of the subsection of the Discipline known as “The Ministry of All Christians” redefines inclusiveness as “the full involvement and participation of all persons who seek to follow in the way of Jesus by serving God and neighbor in all that they do.” To the definition of what inclusiveness is added that the denomination rejects “every barrier that serves to divide and separate us as members of the body of Christ.” A new final paragraph lists some of those barriers, including “ableism, heterosexism, racism, sexism, misogyny, tribalism, and all forms of xenophobia.” This paragraph is in part of the Discipline that is not subject to revision by the central conferences.
Also unrevisable by central conferences is a change made to Paragraph 129. The first half of the next to last sentence of that paragraph had read, “Entrance into and acceptance of ministry begin in a local church.” That phrase now adds “or extension ministry” to align it with the mission statement of the denomination (Paragraph 120). The 2016 General Conference had previously altered the denomination’s mission statement to include extension ministries alongside local churches as the “most significant arenas through which disciple-making occurs.”
However, the opening phrase of Paragraph 129 had also previously been used by some conference boards of ordained ministry as warrant to require candidates for ordination, especially candidates for the order of elder, to serve in full-time appointments in local churches during their residency as provisional members as a condition of being recommended for ordination. Persons who were seeking ordination as elders and intending to serve in academia, or as chaplains, campus ministers, or other forms of extension ministry, were sometimes told they must either agree to stop pursuing those other ministries during their residency and prove themselves effective in a full-time local church appointment or else cease seeking ordination as elders. This was despite that fact that some extension ministry positions, notably in chaplaincy and on seminary faculty, require ordination as an elder, as well as the fact that another paragraph in the Discipline had, since 2008, made specific provisions for appointment to extension ministries during residency (Paragraph 326.2). Since Paragraph 129 now states that entrance into all kinds of ministries may now occur from within an extension ministry, perhaps we may see a new flowering of ordained clergy in denominational and other approved extension ministry settings.
Finally, there is now a body other than the Council of Bishops which may request a declaratory decision on the constitutionality of any proposed legislation between sessions of the General Conference, the Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders (Paragraph 2609.2). This change brings greater lay-clergy parity to the polity of the denomination. This may also lead to requests for declaratory decisions on proposed legislation on a wider range of matters, especially those seen to be of importance by the lay leadership of the denomination.
Overall, most of these churchwide changes may be considered relatively small. However, their implications for the denomination at the churchwide level are significant. The timing of the Student Day offering is now more closely identified with important moments in the lives of students. The need for recruitment of Native American candidates for licensed and ordained ministry now has a means of being funded. Every level and entity of the church’s life is now challenged to address its inclusiveness in concrete ways. Another barrier to clergy candidates seeking ordination and to serve in extension ministries is lowered. And the lay leadership of the denomination now have a channel to bring requests for declaratory decisions regarding proposed General Conference legislation between sessions of the General Conference. Together, these small changes indicate that the delegates elected to the General Conference were listening carefully to a variety of needs at the churchwide level, and responding in ways that lead the denomination toward greater equity and inclusion.
Burton Edwards is Lead for Ask The UMC, the information service of The United Methodist Church.
