Key points:
- The Connectional Table, which coordinates The United Methodist Church’s ministry and resources, affirmed the work of the Leadership Gathering.
- That’s significant because the Connectional Table can help give life to the gathering’s suggestions.
- The body also continued exploring the future of U.S. jurisdictions and whether a mediation process will be needed between regional conferences.
An influential body of United Methodist leaders wants to ensure that the ideas presented last month in Calgary don’t just stay in Calgary.
The Connectional Table — which coordinates The United Methodist Church’s mission, ministries and resources — met Oct. 29-30 in downtown Vancouver just days after the historic Leadership Gatheringconcluded in Calgary, Alberta.
Also on the Connectional Table’s agenda was work stemming from regionalization, the denominational restructuring ratified last year that aims to give The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions equal decision-making authority.
“It’s been a productive meeting over two days; we cram a lot in,” said the Rev. Kim Jenne, a Connectional Table member from the Missouri Conference.
“But really, what I’m noticing about this meeting is the continued momentum and enthusiasm coming out of Calgary. There’s a bit of an overlap between people who were at the Leadership Gathering and people who are a part of the Connectional Table, and their enthusiasm, interest and curiosity is contagious.”
The Oct. 20-24 Leadership Gathering brought together bishops and their chosen lay and clergy participants — more than a third under age 35 — to name the challenges the denomination is facing and suggest ways to address those realities. The gathering resulted in 16 recommendations aimed at supporting discipleship, empowering younger generations and amplifying global voices.
“The Connectional Table commits to engaging the recommendations as they are further developed, encouraging collaboration across our wide connection, and helping establish transparent processes for learning, evaluation and accountability,” the group said in a statement drafted at the meeting.
The Connectional Table’s backing matters because the international board brings together many of the United Methodist leaders who can help turn the recommendations into reality.
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The Connectional Table has released a statement supporting the work of the Leadership Gathering.
Read statement.
The Connectional Table, as the name implies, connects many United Methodist ministries around the same table. The board has 44 voting members including agency board presidents, bishops and other church leaders from around the globe. The top executives of the denomination’s 13 general agencies all have voice but not vote on the Connectional Table.
The international board also works closely with other denomination-wide bodies, including the Council of Bishops. Together, the Connectional Table and bishops crafted the denomination’s new vision statement: “The United Methodist Church forms disciples of Jesus Christ who, empowered by the Holy Spirit, love boldly, serve joyfully, and lead courageously in local communities and worldwide connections.
That new vision statement informed many of the recommendations coming out of the Leadership Gathering including ideas for evangelism resources, improved service for neighbors and support for young people in addressing global crises.
In its statement, the Connectional Table “affirms its commitment to work with the Council of Bishops, general agencies and other partners to discern how these recommendations might inform our common work.”
Charmaine Narvadez, a Connectional Table member from the Philippines who also attended the Leadership Gathering, helped draft the statement. As a young adult, she said she was excited not just to take part in church but also its decision-making.
“What we do right now could affect the future and future generations to come,” she said.
In addition to its endorsement of the Leadership Gathering, Connectional Table members also continued to work on the ramifications of regionalization with the Standing Committee on Regional Conference Matters outside the U.S.A.
The standing committee is a permanent committee of General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly, and the one body in the church with a majority of members from Africa, Europe and the Philippines. Together with the Connectional Table and a grassroots group called the Christmas Covenant, the standing committee developed regionalization.
The restructuring creates nine regional conferences with equal authority to adapt the denomination’s Book of Discipline. With ratification, there are now four regional conferences in Africa, three in Europe, one in the Philippines and soon-to-be one in the U.S.
With regionalization’s ratification, another piece of legislation took effect authorizing the Connectional Table and standing committee members to explore two questions:
- Whether the U.S. should continue to have jurisdictions.
- Whether a mediation process should be developed for situations where a regional conference may be seen as overstepping its power of adaptation.
Over the past year, members of both bodies have jointly served on working groups seeking to answer these questions.
During the Connectional Table meeting, the working group on jurisdictions announced that it is continuing with its plans to bring legislation — including amendments to the denomination’s constitution — that would leave it up to each regional conference whether to have jurisdictions.
“In other words, we’re not trying to impose a jurisdictional structure on every region; nor are we trying to eliminate the possibility of jurisdictions,” said the Rev. Allison Mark, a Connectional Table member and vice chair of the working group. She is also the senior pastor of Faith United Methodist Church in Torrance, California, and president of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society.
“We’re putting that responsibility where it belongs, within the regions themselves. The General Conference would still retain authority to determine the powers and duties of those jurisdictions.”
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The mediation working group decided to go in a different direction — opting not to develop a mediation process at this time. The group was looking at what might happen when a regional conference disputes the way another regional conference adapted the Discipline.
“We did not want to encourage a spirit of criticism among regional conferences, and we didn’t want to provide an opportunity for people to be thinking: ‘How are those other people doing it, and is that OK with us?’” said Jill Wondel, a standing committee member from Missouri and chair of the working group.
“So, we determined that we did not think there should be a process, at least not at this time. There might be a time in the future that we would want to encourage some mediation, but we haven’t even really worked out what regionalization looks like for us yet.”
The standing committee will review these plans when it meets in February on the campus of Africa University in Mutare, Zimbabwe.
During much of the meeting, the church leaders also engaged in small-group discussion about what it would mean to decolonize the denomination that has its roots in Britain and the U.S. but now aims to put all regions on equal footing.
The discussion was led by Felipe Maia, a theology professor at United Methodist-related Boston University School of Theology and member of the United Methodist Committee on Faith and Order.
Maia noted that Christianity itself arose in an oppressive context — specifically, Jesus brought God to earth and began the movement in Roman-occupied Palestine.
“There is no pre-colonial Christianity,” he said. “We are working toward a post-colonial Christianity.”
Bishop Mande Muyombo, who leads United Methodists in Tanzania and the North Katanga Conference in Congo, said he sees the Connectional Table as key to helping The United Methodist Church live into that post-colonial future where no one culture dominates.
During the meeting, the bishop stepped down as chair of the Connectional Table as he takes on the responsibilities of Council of Bishops president-designate.
“I believe that our theological reflection should be ahead of all structures,” he said after the Connectional Table paid tribute to his leadership of the body, which began in December 2022. “I think that will help us be transformed.”
Bishop Carlo Rapanut, who is succeeding Muyombo as chair and leads the Desert Southwest and New Mexico conferences, told UM News that in the meeting, he could “feel the Holy Spirit moving.”
He wasn’t alone.
Wondel described the whole meeting as “a beautiful gift of the Holy Spirit.”
“I keep hearing the same things from different groups,” she told those gathered. “It’s just clear to me that the Holy Spirit is at work among us, and I’m so grateful to God for the Spirit’s work in our midst.”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
