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Annual Conference 2025

Greetings. As your lay leader, I am providing a report on the Annual Conference 2025. The conference was held in Greenville NC on June 11 - 14. The theme of this year‘s conference was Love Boldly, Serve Joyfully, and Lead Courageously. I must admit, this was my first Annual Conference and what an amazing event it was. Last Sunday Pastor Tobi provided some statistical information that was provided at the conference. I have listed some of that information below. I want to provide you with some of the emotional information I experienced.

The conference was full of prayer and fellowship throughout. There were several worship services as well as Holy Communion was provided throughout. On Friday there was a memorial service honoring 27 clergy and 24 spouses of clergy that have passed since the last conference. The sermon titled “Witnesses“ was provided by Reverend Bob Bergland.

On Saturday there was a Service for the Ordering of Ministry. A powerful sermon titled “Living Love“ was provided by Bishop Gregory Palmer. During the service 41 people were licensed, certified, commissioned and ordained into the ministry. These included certification of Lay ministers, licensing of local pastors, commissioning of provisional members, coordinating of deacons and coordinating of elders.

There was also some work done during the conference. This included voting on four constitutional amendments as well as several resolutions.

The constitutional amendments were as follows:

  • Ballot #1 – Worldwide Regionalization
  • Ballot #2 – Inclusiveness of the Church, paragraph 4, Article IV
  • Ballot #3 – Racial Justise, paragraph 5, Article V
  • Ballot #4 – Local Pastor Voting Eligibility

These amendments were recommended to the Annual Conference by the General Conference which is the legislative branch of the UMC. The vote on constitutional amendments is the aggregate vote of all annual conferences of the UMC.  It will be later this year before the outcome of all the votes are received.  It takes 2/3 of all the delegates voting in all the annual conferences for the amendment to pass. The tally of our NC vote was not shared with the body so as not to influence other annual conferences who are yet to vote.  The final results are shared all at one time across the denomination.

The resolutions were as follows:

  • Resolution 1 – Presentation of a mock resolution at Annual Conference – passed
  • Resolution 2 – A call for a Conference LGBTQ+ Ministry Team - The resolution was referred to the Conference Connectional Table (CCT) and Committee on Rules for study.
  • Resolution 3– Opposition to abortion beyond 12 weeks past fertilization – The resolution was not adopted. It was noted that the newly adopted Social Principles of The United Methodist Church already address abortion in the Reproductive Health and Abortion section.
  • Resolution 4 – For the NCCUMC and it’s Congregations to Take a More Public Stand in Support of Immigrants and Refugees - passed

In closing, there is so much more I can tell you. For more information here is the link to the Conference, https://nccumc.org/ac2025/     I highly recommend if you have never attended an Annual Conference, make plans to do so. It is an emotional and uplifting event. Your next opportunity will be June 18-20, 2026. If you are not aware, any professing Methodist can attend the Annual Conference.

Peace of Christ,

James Best

 

2024 Statistical Information:

  • 438 Churches
  • 142,385 Members
  • 28,957 Attendees
  • 804 Baptisms
  • $9,354,843 Apportionment Paid
  • $1,048,561 United Methodist Men, Paid for projects
  • $596,074 United Women in Faith, Paid for local church & community work
  • 6073 United Methodist Youth Participants
  • $504,288 Spent on Youth Projects

 

Annual Conference 2025:

  • 1010 People in attendance
  • 2400 Pounds of menstrual hygiene supplies collected to be given to women worldwide
  • $12,257,630 Budget for Mission and Ministry in 2027. We work 2 years ahead on the budget.