Bishop Lanette Plambeck began her 2025 Episcopal Address by reflecting on the word “hallelujah”— pointing out that it is found only in Psalms and Revelation, where it is used as a collective call to praise the Lord. Hallelujah, she said, is a posture. In a world marked by violence and division, to lift hallelujah is to bear witness to God’s goodness and steadfast love, even when it comes through tears and struggle. “We raise our hallelujah around the unrelenting grace of our God as testimony to what God has done,” she said. “We raise our hallelujah as resistance. We raise our hallelujah against fear and lies. We raise our hallelujah as a commitment to what God will do through us.”
Bishop Lanette warned against the dangers of false gospels in our time. “Any movement — political or ecclesial — that trades the cross for the sword, that substitutes nationalism for the kingdom of God, that cloaks white supremacy in Christian language must be named for what it is: a distortion of the gospel,” she said. “We must resist not with fear, not with hatred, but with holy clarity about what God’s unrelenting, reckless grace is all about.”
Drawing from 1 John 4, the theme of this year’s Annual Conference was “Created to Love Boldly.” We were reminded that God loves us beyond measure and inspired to share God’s love in a hurting world. The gathering took place at the River’s Edge Convention Center in St. Cloud, where nearly 500 Minnesota United Methodists came together to worship, learn, discern our shared future and celebrate what God is doing through us.
Attendees heard two teaching sessions from the Rev. Dr. Tim Eberhart, a theologian and professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary who said that climate disruption, political division, spiritual fatigue and community breakdown are colliding and amplifying one another. He didn’t sugarcoat the realities of our time, but he did bring hope. He talked about how trees survive and regenerate after a fire. Some have seeds that need fire to break their dormancy; the fire opens and releases the seeds so they can begin to germinate and be the bearers of new life. He invited us to look for those “fire seeds”— tiny sparks of renewal that survive even the most devastating burn — and he identified five: active discipleship, social holiness, lifelong learning, radical equality and a bold, embodied belief that God is love.
During a Celebration of Life in Ministry worship service on the evening of June 12, Minnesota United Methodists honored and thanked 15 clergy entering retirement and celebrated one pastor ordained as a deacon, five ordained as elders, five commissioned as provisional pastors, one recognized as an elder in full connection from another denomination, and five authorized to serve as local pastors in the congregations and ministry areas in which they are appointed.
The Rev. Dr. Richard Huskey, who was also set to be ordained as an elder in full connection, suffered a medical event and was unable to attend the ordination, but conference attendees
took up a collection that enabled Bishop Lanette to fly to Pennsylvania — where Huskey lived — to ordain him June 14, the day after Annual Conference concluded. In 1977, while in process to become an elder, the Minnesota Conference discontinued his orders after Huskey disclosed he was gay. Following the 2024 General Conference's removal of the denomination’s decades-long ban on gay clergy, Huskey requested to reenter and complete the ordination process and, with recommendation from the Board of Ordained Ministry, was voted on and approved for ordination at the 2025 Minnesota Clergy Session. The day after Huskey was ordained, he died. “We give thanks for … his faith, his perseverance and his prophetic witness — and we rejoice that he is now fully and forever among the elders of the Church,” Bishop Lanette said.
Annual Conference members, on behalf of their churches, gave $57,615 to the 2025 Love Offering. Recipients are: United Methodist-related Africa University, for student scholarships (30%); Immigration Law and Justice Network (30%); OC Ministries, which ministers to children around the world (20%); and Midwest Mission, a depot in the United Methodist Committee on Relief (UMCOR) supply network (20%).
Hundreds of voting members in attendance at Annual Conference approved the majority of legislation under consideration, including: · a resolution calling on all congregations to commit to taking climate action by creating or strengthening a “green team” for action in four areas each year — worship, education, practice and advocacy · a resolution encouraging all congregations to examine our church property deeds and personal and business property deeds, as well as the books in our municipalities and counties, for discriminatory language/laws and have them removed · a resolution that publicly opposes the U.S. presidential administration’s proposed plan for the U.S. to “take over” and “own” the Gaza Strip and calls for the Palestinian people to have a voice in their own destiny and a right to their land · a resolution affirming that withholding humanitarian aid to those in need is antithetical to the Gospel message and opposing the actions of the U.S. government to withhold aid from the people of Gaza · a 2026 apportioned budget totaling $4,965,615, with an uncollectible contingency of $375,000 for a total apportioned budget of $5,340,615. This represents a 0.9% increase from the 2025 apportioned budget. Members also voted to formally approve the discontinuance of two churches that have closed over the past year: Fosston United Methodist and Mount Bethel United Methodist in Inver Grove Heights. The number of professing members within Minnesota United Methodist churches in 2024 totaled 43,486, down 9% from the previous year. In-person worship attendance stood at 14,615, down 0.5%, and online attendance was 12,236, up 8.4%. Sunday church school attendance totaled 2,493 last year, down 8.9% from 2023. Adults in small groups in 2024 totaled 8,290, up 10.2%. The number of congregation members engaged in mission was 10,501 last year, up 3.3%.
—Christa Meland, director of communications, Minnesota Annual Conference