Key points:
- Some 3,000 people, mostly from the U.S., attended United Women in Faith Assembly 2026.
- Those who attended heard the call to put love into action so all people can have the abundant life promised by Jesus.
- They also celebrated the consecration of deaconesses and home missioners and learned how they can engage more in mission.
After attending her first United Women in Faith Assembly in 2022, Linda Cockett could not wait to attend her second such gathering this year.
“When you have this many women gathered and excited about their faith and excited about the mission,” said the member of Torrington United Methodist Church in Torrington, Wyoming, “it just breeds excitement in you.”
She was among the nearly 3,000 people attending the United Women in Faith Assembly 2026, the 21st quadrennial gathering of the United Methodist women’s organization with roots going back to 1869.
During the May 15-17 event in the Indianapolis Convention Center, largely U.S. participants joined in worship, reflected on Scripture, explored mission opportunities and heard from more than 60 different women leaders about how their Christian faith inspires them to act.
The message throughout the weekend was: When women unite to carry out God’s mission, they are “unstoppable.”
The Rev. Stephanie York Arnold, who served as the assembly’s theologian in residence, preached that those gathered have the power to help fulfill Jesus’ promise of “abundant life” in John 10:10.
“When I look over this body of loving, courageous, faithful, resilient women, I can’t help but wonder: How might the world change if we all chose to shine our light?” York Arnold asked.
She is the top executive of the United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women, which works for women’s equality in church life and owes its founding in large part to the advocacy of United Women in Faith.
“I see an abundance of women who come from a long line of powerful women who knew how to do their part to move the societal needle towards the good of all,” York Arnold said. “Can you imagine the light we could shine if we all agreed to shine it in a way that creates abundant life for all people?”
Need is great
Sally Vonner, the top executive of United Women in Faith, stressed that the threats facing women, children and youth are great.
“As I look at the state of America today, the division, the hate, the othering and the violence carried out under the guise of national security, it can feel deeply discouraging,” she said. “I know I am not alone in that. We are living in a complex and urgent moment.”
The group has long focused on addressing climate change, stopping the school-to-prison pipeline and promoting racial justice.
Now, as Vonner pointed out, the U.S. federal government is cutting support for primary and college education, separating children from their migrant parents, imperiling voting rights for women and people of color, and reversing strides toward renewable energy and environmental protection even as the U.S. in March capped the hottest 12 months since official records began in 1895. Federal cuts also have affected the group’s more than 80 National Mission Institutions that serve women, youth and children across the U.S.
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Those attending United Women in Faith Assembly 2026 heard from fellow United Methodists Stacey Abrams, author and voting rights activist, and her mother, the Rev. Carolyn Abrams.
Elizabeth Eckford, who faced violence to desegregate Central High School in Little Rock, Arkansas, also shared her story at an assembly dinner.
Read UM News story.
Read United Women in Faith blog about gathering.
See photos.
Even amid all these changes, United Women in Faith members heard throughout the weekend about the various ways that they are making a difference — providing crucial scholarships, supporting migrants and cultivating women leaders who drive economic development around the world.
The commitment to making a difference was even part of acknowledgement that the host site stands on the lands of the Miami and the Potawatomi. After Rev. Angel Armstrong of Trinity United Methodist Church in Indianapolis led the acknowledgement, Vonner announced that United Women in Faith was giving a $2,000 contribution to the Miami Nation of Indiana Honor Fund, a program to support the tribe in sustaining its community and culture.
Vonner challenged those present to invite others to join United Women in Faith —already some 300,000 strong in the U.S. Her goal is that by 2029, the group will have 500,000 members.
“Now, this is where ‘Unstoppable’ becomes real,” Vonner said. “We are called to grow this movement so that more women can experience this sisterhood and put their faith in action.”
She added that even small increases in giving of $5 and $10 can also help the organization serve more women, children and youth.
Organizers told those gathered that the goal was to raise $100,000 for mission during the weekend.
Periodically, those attending received an update on giving from UWF leaders Sue Owens and Marilyn Reid. They revved up participants while wearing orange racing jumpsuits decorated with brightly colored patches advertising mission — a reference to the assembly location not far from where the Indy 500 race is set to take place May 24.
By the end of the closing communion service May 17, Vonner announced that those who attended had vroomed past their goal for the weekend’s race — giving more than $300,000 to support United Women in Faith.
Consecration service
The May 15 evening worship included a consecration service for 22 deaconesses and home missioners. They are part of the lay order of service that United Women in Faith and its predecessors have overseen since 1888.
The order — which brings together people in varied lines of work — can be a source of confusion, acknowledged Scott James-Vickery, executive for the candidacy office for deaconess and home missioner.
“A deaconess is not a female deacon,” he said. “We are not lay supply pastors, nor is our title something that disappeared when women could be ordained. I am a home missioner. We are still here. And our work continues.”
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Indiana Conference Bishop Tracy S. Malone, who joined with retired Bishop Peggy A. Johnson in consecrating the new deaconesses and home missioners, stressed that the movement of Jesus has always relied on the witness of lay people.
“It is through the lives of the laity that the Gospel is embodied in homes, workplaces, communities and in every place where hope is needed and justice is sought for generations,” she preached.
“United Women in Faith have borne witness to this truth through faithful discipleship, courageous advocacy, relentless prayer and compassionate service, forming disciples who are rooted in Christ and who are actively transforming communities all around the world.”
Scarlet Farr, who is just beginning her deaconess-candidacy process, said attending her first assembly confirmed she is on the right path.
Farr, a member of St. Elmo United Methodist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee, said she first learned about the deaconess vocation while attending the Upper Room’s Academy of Spiritual Formation. That led her to more deeply explore the work of United Women in Faith.
“I am absolutely very much connected to something that has been happening that I had no idea was happening around me,” said Farr, a special-education teacher who oversees a literacy center. “This is life-giving to me.”
Digging deeper
The assembly also included multiple workshops where participants learned how they might get more involved in such efforts as supporting migrants, cleaning up the environment, ending mass incarceration and serving at General Conference.
LaNella Smith said she already is taking lessons from the workshop led by Andrea James, director of The National Council for Incarcerated and Formerly Incarcerated Women and Girls.
“It was just awesome to hear the stuff that she is doing, but also her understanding that what she does is not necessarily what we need to do,” Smith said. She is a former president of the North Carolina Conference’s United Women in Faith and member of New Creation United Methodist Church in Durham.
Smith said that James emphasized the need to examine what the issues in their communities are. “Her point was what happens here may not be the issue there,” Smith said. “So, it was a great workshop.”
For Rachel Bachenberg, this was her 12th assembly. While a young adult missionary through The United Methodist Church’s Global Mission Fellows program, she attended her first gathering on a scholarship from the South Central Jurisdiction.
Seeing how women leaders smoothly handled so many details of such a massive gathering as well as the women’s commitment to service inspired Bachenberg to get involved herself.
“It was life-changing,” said Bachenberg, a member of Keystone United Methodist Church in Kansas City, Missouri, in the Missouri Conference. “I will never miss another assembly.”
Jana Jones, United Women in Faith president, drew some 40 fellow women in the Mountain Sky Conference to the gathering.
“I always get so inspired by the women that are here,” Jones said. The presentations, sermons and music all leave women feeling ready to take on more mission.
“It’s the power of assembly,” she said. “You go and take that energy and put it into ministry.”
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.
