Following the news at General Conference

Key points:

• General Conference is set for April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina.
• Delegates to the legislative assembly will help chart the future of the denomination, including how inclusive to be of LGBTQ people in the life of the church.
• United Methodist public relations and news teams are prepared to deliver unbiased, clear information on what transpires.

United Methodist Communications is going to great lengths to make keeping abreast of General Conference, which takes place April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, North Carolina, as easy as possible.

“From the opening gavel on April 23 to the closing sermon on May 3, United Methodist News will be providing comprehensive coverage of the work of General Conference,” said Tim Tanton, director of UM News and chief news officer for United Methodist Communications. “We will be reporting quickly on decisions as they are made, as well as the debates and dialogue.

“But General Conference is more than a legislative assembly, and we will also be covering the uplifting worship moments and special observances, as well as looking for the personal stories that put a human face on the gathering,” he added.

Those interested in keeping up with General Conference can stay informed via a live video stream, daily reports from UM News delivered in several languages, a special daily edition of the UM News Digest e-newsletter, high-resolution photographs, video recaps, updates on social media, a new United Methodist News Facebook Messenger Bot and a UM News channel on WhatsApp.

The livestream will be available in English, American Sign Language, Spanish, Korean, French and Portuguese. Many of the news stories will be translated into those languages as well, plus German and Kiswahili.

“The General Conference Newsroom will be operating from early in the morning until well after adjournment each day, as communicators from around the church and secular media reporters do their work,” Tanton said.

Ask The UMC, an information ministry of United Methodist Communications, will be on site monitoring the proceedings at General Conference and receiving queries in person and via live chat and email. The volume of questions will determine how quickly the answers will come.

“Along with breaking stories, UM News will be doing a daily wrap-up that will capture the news and other highlights of the day,” Tanton said. “Immediately following General Conference, we will produce a summary of key actions taken — and not taken — and a final wrap-up story of the event.”

UM News also will provide breaking coverage on X (formerly Twitter) and full reports on Facebook. People also can sign up for the UM News RSS feed to see the latest stories.

“In the weeks following, UM News will continue to develop coverage and information resources on the actions of General Conference and what comes next,” Tanton added.

The 862 voting delegates to General Conference will help shape the future of a denomination that has been dealing with division and disaffiliations. About 25% of U.S churches have departed since 2019 over how inclusive to be of LGBTQ people in the life of the church. Delegates will consider legislative petitions related to the debate on human sexuality, regionalization, the updated Social Principles, ecumenical relations and the budget. 

In total, there are 1,099 petitions up for consideration, including 352 new petitions submitted since General Conference’s delay in 2020.

Keeping delegates and observers informed is key to the work of United Methodist Communications. 

“What we're trying to do is to democratize access to information,” said Jennifer Rodia, chief communications officer at United Methodist Communications.

“So leading up to this General Conference, we’ve been working with our technology team — and The Connectional Table who helped sponsor this idea — to build this messenger app that will tie into our news feed and that we’ve pre-loaded with information to help the delegates educate themselves and be informed about legislation and important, key things that are coming up.”

The Facebook Messenger Bot will deliver featured topics in English, French and Portuguese. Those who sign up will receive access to session schedules, key resolutions and event highlights.

There also will be videos that sum up what happens each day. The daily videos will be in English only, but the final wrap-up video will have versions in French and Portuguese.

“On Saturday, May 4, we will have a wrap-up video that covers the entire conference and hits the highlights,” Rodia said. “Our hope is that local churches will be able to share that final wrap-up video in their churches on the following Sunday morning.”

For mainstream media covering General Conference in person or remotely, there has been a proactive public relations effort “putting positive messaging out there,” Rodia said.

“We’ve been helping make sure that they have accurate information,” she said.

The Associated Press, New York Times and Washington Times are among the 118 media outlets that have expressed interest in General Conference, said Brenda Smotherman, associate public relations director at United Methodist Communications.

“We’re not doing things as we necessarily did in the past on the PR front,” Smotherman said. “We are being very proactive with our contacts and trying to get them information ahead of time and have an online General Conference press center. We want to make sure that people telling the story of The United Methodist Church are able to report accurately and to help mitigate confusion that can lead to misinformation.”

Bishops and other church officials have agreed to be available for interviews during General Conference, which Smotherman’s office can facilitate.

“Though no one speaks for The United Methodist Church except for General Conference, we have people that can speak as topical experts on matters such as regionalization and the Revised Social Principles,” Smotherman said. “For instance, if someone has questions about pensions, we’re able to connect them with Wespath (Benefits and Investments).”

Among other available commentators will be United Methodist leaders on women’s issues, ethnic ministries and budget matters.

“My goal is to try to equip communicators and reporters and be as transparent as possible about what we’re doing,” Smotherman said.

The Daily Christian Advocate is the official journal of General Conference, and will publish to its website information for delegates on an ongoing basis during the event as well as a daily printed publication. The DCA has already published a bonanza of information online, including new, valid petitions, reports and an updated handbook for delegates.

“Our primary publication is the DCA website,” said its editor Brian Sigmon. “Everything is going to be run through the website first as the primary publication, but we are still going to print the daily DCA.”

The print version, to be circulated each day at General Conference, will contain only the information needed for delegates to have an informed vote: “The daily calendar, the list of petitions, nominations lists and bios, things like that,” Sigmon said.

“This time around, we are translating everything that’s going to be in the daily DCA,” he said. “We’re going to have translators on site who are doing that each day, working to translate the English content into French, Portuguese and Swahili.”

For those wanting to see the action at General Conference, United Methodist News will be posting thousands of high-resolution photos capturing the event, said Mike DuBose, one of three photojournalists who will be covering the event.

“We’ll cover the events of the day, large and small,” DuBose said, “and we’ll post captioned, edited news photos on the website.”

A separate photo album will be posted on Flickr for each day of the conference.

Patterson is a UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee. Contact him at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.