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Oklahoma Annual Conference

Annual Conferences
Dancer Briana Hanson joyfully helps introduce a report from United Women in Faith during the 2024 United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C. After a season of church disaffiliations, United Methodists are moving forward with a new vision, declaring members should “love boldly, serve joyfully and lead courageously.” The Arkansas and Oklahoma conferences have created ad campaigns to support that work and showcase the denomination’s resiliency and values. File photo by Mike DuBose, UM News.

Bold new era declared for church

The Arkansas and Oklahoma conferences are planning advertising and social media campaigns this fall to follow up on The United Methodist Church’s new vision statement.
Mission and Ministry
About 85 people gathered to celebrate the 25th anniversary of Exodus House, a ministry of the Oklahoma Conference of The United Methodist Church, on Oct. 21 in Oklahoma City. From left are Lesa Rhoads, Exodus House assistant director; Lew McGinnis, a member of the Exodus House board; Keith Dobbs, executive director of Criminal Justice and Mercy Ministries; Robin Wertz, resident director of Exodus House; Anne Robertson, intern for CJAMM; and Kristin Ferrell-Wilkes, New Day Camp office assistant. Photo by Boyce Bowdon, UM News.

Exodus House celebrates 25 years of changing lives

The Oklahoma Conference ministry for prisoners reentering society started receiving residents in 1998, but it began two years earlier in the minds of two United Methodist pastors who wanted to do something about recidivism.
General Church
The Oklahoma Supreme Court has struck down two decisions by a lower-court judge who sided with churches seeking to exit The United Methodist Church with property. The decisions could have implications for other church-disaffiliation cases that have landed in U.S. civil courts. Gavel by Sergei Tokmakov, Esq., courtesy of Pixabay; graphic by Laurens Glass, UM News.

High court orders church-exit suits be dismissed

The Oklahoma Supreme Court’s decisions, which side with The United Methodist Church’s Oklahoma Conference, could have wider implications for church-disaffiliation cases in other state courts.
Annual Conferences
The Oklahoma Conference is appealing a county judge’s order that the conference must redo its April special session to vote on the disaffiliation of a church that filed suit. The vast majority of churches leaving The United Methodist Church are following the denomination’s disaffiliation policy, but some cases are landing in civil courts. Gavel photo by Sergei Tokmakov, courtesy of Pixabay.

Judge orders Oklahoma to redo special session

A court order had the Oklahoma Conference scrambling to hold an unplanned special session in August to vote on the disaffiliation of a church that filed suit. The conference also is appealing the ruling, arguing the judge’s order violates the First Amendment.

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