Christmas Covenant Updates

The Western Methodist Justice Movement has been a supporter of the Christmas Covenant legislation since its inception in December 2019. If passed, it transforms central conferences into regional conferences and creates a U.S. regional conference that would allow these regions to design ministry for their particular missional contexts. This strong regionalization helps preserve the unity of The United Methodist Church and  also works towards decolonizing our polity by establishing structural parity throughout the global church. These fundamental structural changes require constitutional amendments that must be ratified by annual conferences. The Christmas Covenant legislation was submitted to the next General Conference by the Cavite Philippines Annual Conference and is gaining broad support in the United States and other central conferences. 

In early November last year, all 5 jurisdictional conferences in the United States passed resolutions supporting global regionalization including the creation of a U.S. regional conference as envisioned in the Christmas Covenant. There is an ongoing effort to get as many annual conferences to pass similar resolutions this coming June when U.S. annual conferences convene. In late November, a forum on the future of the UMC was held on the sidelines of the Philippines Central Conference. The Rev. Dr. Betty Kazadi, a member of the Christmas Covenant team and a General Conference delegate from the Congo Central Conference, joined bishops from the Philippines, Europe, and the U.S., to promote regionalization. Watch her speech here.