Key points:
- Emily Allen will lead the planning of The United Methodist Church’s international legislative assembly, next scheduled in 2028.
- The lay member from California brings to her new role experience as a veteran General Conference delegate who has also served in denominational leadership.
- She comes aboard as General Conference organizers are grappling with travel challenges beyond their control.
The Council of Bishops on April 29 elected Emily Allen to serve as the key leader in planning General Conference, The United Methodist Church’s top lawmaking assembly.
Allen — a veteran lay delegate from the California-Nevada Conference — is taking on the role of interim General Conference secretary after the Rev. Aleze Fulbright, the current secretary, decided to take a new appointment in her home Indiana Conference.
“I see the role as facilitating the best possible experience for General Conference delegates and all others involved in General Conference,” Allen told United Methodist News.
Allen officially takes office on July 1, when Fulbright becomes executive assistant to Indiana Conference Bishop Tracy S. Malone.
As interim secretary, Allen will be guiding the complicated planning process for a gathering, typically held every four years, that draws delegates from four continents who speak multiple languages. General Conference delegates come together to pray, worship and make decisions that affect millions of United Methodists for years to come. The delegates have various dietary needs, require multiple hotel rooms and many require visas to attend.
Allen is coming aboard two years into the planning process for the next General Conference, scheduled May 8-16, 2028, in Minneapolis.
Under Fulbright’s leadership, the Commission on the General Conference that plans the big meeting has already made significant decisions for the event — including its main Minneapolis location, the number of delegates and a framework for its schedule.
Still, a lot of work remains. Fulbright plans to help with the transition. She has told Allen that she plans to run with the interim secretary for a stretch and then pass the baton so Allen can complete the race. Fulbright also has volunteered to help in any way she can from the sidelines.
This coming General Conference will mark the first time in The United Methodist Church’s history that a majority of delegates will come from outside the United States. All told, the coming General Conference is set to have 708 delegates with 46% from the U.S. and 54% from Africa, the Philippines, Europe and concordat churches that have close ties to The United Methodist Church. Delegate elections are starting this year around the globe.
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However, General Conference organizers including the commission and business manager Sharah Dass are already contending both with the denomination’s financial constraints and the increasing travel bans and expensive visa bonds being instituted by the U.S. government.
“I’m absolutely paying attention to the travel considerations, concerns, safety of our delegates and attendees,” Allen said.
Already, organizers are exploring extending the General Conference bar to a second site in Canada for the up to 150 delegates affected by U.S. travel restrictions. Possible second locations include Calgary, Winnipeg and Toronto, so that delegates could all meet in a similar time zone with consistent internet access.
General Conference organizers are also updating the legislative tracking software that serves as General Conference’s backbone for the first time since 1988. The new Conference and Legislation Management System, called CALMS for short, is set to be completed in September and launch in January.
Allen brings professional experience in improving databases both for a museum and at Los Altos United Methodist Church in Los Altos, California.
“That is actually a specific expertise that I’m excited about utilizing to help walk through the final steps of the CALMS development — making sure that we do all the user-testing, everyone has the right access levels, and everything is set up the way we need it to be,” she said.
Allen, a member of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in Palo Alto, California, also has varied experience in denominational leadership.
As a student at the University of California San Diego, she got involved in the campus’ Wesley Foundation. From there, she connected with the United Methodist Student Forum — annual gatherings that brought together United Methodist young adults from across the U.S.
Those experiences led her to serve from 2004 to 2008 on the inaugural board of the denomination’s Division on Ministries with Young People — now Young People’s Ministries.
She went on to serve on the boards of two agencies: United Methodist Communications and the Commission on the Status and Role of Women. UM News is part of United Methodist Communications.
She is also the current chair of the Western Jurisdiction Committee on Episcopacy, which works with bishops in that jurisdiction.
The California-Nevada Conference elected her as a delegate to the 2012, 2016, 2019 and 2024 General Conferences. In late 2020, she was part of the technology study team that looked at potential for an online General Conference amid COVID-caused shutdowns. Ultimately, General Conference organizers opted to postpone the assembly until 2024 when delegates could meet in person. But Allen intends to bring the lessons she learned from that time.
In 2019 and 2024, she also was elected chair of General Conference’s Committee on Calendar and Agenda, a critical group that determines when legislation that has passed committee goes to the floor for a vote.
Allen first attended General Conference as an observer in 2008 and “was hooked.”
“I have seen the Holy Spirit move in surprising ways at every single General Conference I’ve been to, and it’s the beauty of the surprises,” she said. “You don’t know how you’re going to be surprised.”
Through her various church leadership roles as well as General Conference, she also has been able to make friends around the world.
“For me, at least since college, Methodism has always been about connectionalism,” Allen said. “And General Conference is the ultimate expression of that.”
This story will be updated with more details from today’s Council of Bishops meeting.
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or [email protected]. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
