Key points:
- Organizers are reducing the 2028 United Methodist General Conference to eight days but pressing forward with Minneapolis as the main host.
- Both decisions result in part from the denomination’s financial constraints.
- The group is also taking steps to protect delegates amid heightened immigration enforcement.
General Conference organizers voted April 18 to shorten The United Methodist Church’s next legislative assembly by two days. That means the international gathering is now scheduled May 8-16, 2028.
At the same time, the Commission on the General Conference moved forward with Minneapolis as the host city while exploring adding a possible second site in Canada for delegates unable to secure a visa to the U.S.
Following the recent surge of federal immigration enforcement in Minnesota, the commission also is discussing ways to safeguard all delegates and visitors to General Conference.
“We want every United Methodist to know that we are actively working to ensure that the General Conference experience will support the mental and physical well-being of participants to do the work of the Church,” the Rev. Aleze Fulbright, the General Conference secretary, said in a press statement.
During the commission’s April 17-18 online meeting, Fulbright and Sharah Dass, the General Conference business manager, outlined the steps their office is taking to enable as many of the 708 elected clergy and lay delegates as possible to meet safely and comfortably in Minneapolis. Elections of delegates are just beginning at United Methodist annual conferences around the world.
Concerns about Minneapolis
General Conference organizers were holding their regularly scheduled meeting about a month after receiving letter from the denomination’s InterEthnic Strategy Development Group raising concerns about the Minneapolis location following the federal government’s crackdown.
The interethnic group consists of leaders of the denomination’s five ethnic caucuses representing Asian American, Black, Hispanic, Native American and Pacific Islander United Methodists. The group’s letter, among other things, urges the commission to develop a comprehensive safety plan in partnership with church leaders.
The Rev. Andy Call, the commission’s chair, told the commission and observers he and other commission leaders are committed to ongoing conversation with the group about its recommendations.
During the meeting, the commission also heard in open session from the Rev. Brittany Radford, the Minnesota Conference’s director of racial equity and justice. She spoke of how Minnesota United Methodists have rallied to support their immigrant neighbors. Radford was among approximately 100 Minnesota clergy arrested Jan. 23 when they tried to block Immigration and Customs Enforcement from using the airport in an act of civil disobedience.
In other actions
The Commission on the General Conference also:
- Named YoungKwang “YK” Jun of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference as the 2028 General Conference’s worship and music director.
- Learned that the new Conference and Legislation Management System, called CALMS for short, is set to be completed in September and launch in January 2027. The legislative tracking system is the backbone of General Conference.
- Marked its last meeting with the Rev. Aleze Fulbright as General Conference secretary. She is set to become executive assistant to Indiana Conference Bishop Tracy S. Malone, starting July 1. But Fulbright has volunteered to help in any way she can the interim secretary, who is set to be chosen by the Council of Bishops later this month.
The commission also has shared two press releases about the recent meeting.
Commission offers update on travel and safety precautions
At this time, she said, the state is seeing fewer ICE agents, but people are still experiencing issues around immigration. She said that United Methodists’ concerns about coming to Minneapolis are valid. But she also talked about the precautions Minnesotans have taken to protect people.
She challenged her fellow Minnesota United Methodists to extend that same solidarity to the people coming for General Conference.
“So, when we say that we believe in beloved community, it is not a hashtag, or a statement that we’ve put out,” she said. “But it is an intentional effort of responsibility as well as stewardship.”
Financial constraints
Both the decision to shorten General Conference and stick with Minneapolis result in part from financial considerations.
The commission is working within a $10 million budget for an event that typically costs between $12 million and $14 million. The organizers are also working to make up for a $1.8 million budget deficit inherited from multiple earlier General Conference sessions.
By staying in Minneapolis, Fulbright said, the commission is able to realize credits in the city after the pandemic-caused postponement of the 2020 General Conference and subsequent venue change to Charlotte, North Carolina.
If General Conference did change locations, the commission would need to pay $2.3 million to fulfill its contractual responsibilities in Minneapolis.
Fulbright also told the commission that by voting to shorten General Conference now, she and Dass have a window to shorten the gathering’s hotel stays without any penalty.
Call also urged the commission to keep finances in mind.
“As we looked at the budgetary constraints, it was apparent that we cannot continue to do General Conference the way we have,” said Call, who is also lead pastor of Christ of the Saviour United Methodist Church in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.
Shorter schedule
General Conference typically meets for 10 days. The commission, at this point, has approved a framework for an eight-day schedule with more detailed programming decisions to come later.
The framework calls for opening worship at 3 p.m. U.S. Central time Monday, May 8, followed by adoption of the rules. The next three days will include orientation for delegates from Africa, Europe and the Philippines as well as meetings by the Standing Committee on Regional Conference Matters outside the U.S.A., and a new General Conference legislative committee that will deal solely with U.S. matters. The U.S. legislative committee will only be meeting at this General Conference. It will go away after the formation of the new U.S. Regional Conference.
Plenaries and other legislative sessions begin on Friday, May 12. As has been the pattern for recent General Conference sessions, Sunday, May 14 will be a day of worship and rest, and General Conference is set to complete its work at 6:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 16.
This tight schedule means that delegates will need to do a lot of preparation ahead of time. The commission is working with United Methodist Communications to prepare webinars for delegates to prepare for General Conference.
While organizers do not know yet how many petitions will be submitted to General Conference, they already know of two significant packages that will be coming before delegates:
· Legislation to create a General Book of Discipline that specifies what parts of the denomination’s law book apply to all regions of the denomination and what parts can be adapted by regional conferences.
· A proposal, announced April 17, to unify Discipleship Ministries, United Methodist Communications, Global Ministries and Higher Education and Ministry into a single agency.
Before the recent 2024 General Conference, a number of legislative committees held meetings online where delegates could introduce themselves to each other and begin considering the work ahead. Call said his hope is the commission will help encourage delegates to initiate similar online introductions and discussion.
“I think we can grow from where we were leading into the 2024 General Conference and build off of that,” Call said. “And I think we have to just continue to communicate to delegates as they are elected: ‘You have got to do work before you come.’”
Visas and second location
The commission has set a goal of sending out invitation letters to delegates within 30 days of receiving certification of their election from annual conference secretaries. The commission also plans to post a running tally of the letters sent on the 2028 General Conference website. The invitation letters enable the delegates to begin the visa application process.
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“We have had initial conversations about what does it look like to extend the bar beyond Minneapolis, the site beyond,” Fulbright said. She and her team also have been talking to a consultant on visa matters. At this point, the plan is to have a site in Winnipeg, Calgary or Toronto for the up to 150 delegates who may be unable to obtain U.S. visas.
“Some of the rationale around that is that we want to make it more in sync to the time zone, so that there is not a significant gap in time zones that creates a greater inequity for participation,” Fulbright told the commission.
The commission is also keeping an eye on U.S. travel bans, expensive travel bonds and increasing visa restrictions in other countries.
“It is difficult to anticipate what to expect in this current climate,” Call said in a press statement, “but we remain vigilant and dedicated to our priorities of safety and access.”
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.
