Notes from Special Called Annual Conference Held on February 18, 2023
Pastor Melissa, Kathy Henry (Lay Leader), Joana Arthur (Lay Representative to Annual Conference) and Shea Porter-Miller (Youth Delegate) attended A Special Called Annual Conference session held on February 18, 2023 via Zoom.
The Special Called Annual Conference was for the Virginia Annual Conference membership to consider the ratification of 34 local churches seeking to disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church over matters of human sexuality using Paragraph 2553 of the Book of Discipline. The Annual Conference body voted to ratify the disaffiliation of 33 of the 34 churches. The Annual Conference body voted “no” on the ratification of the disaffiliation of New Town UMC, Mission Rivers District, with a 54% to 46% decision due to unique circumstances. Full minutes of the conference sessions will be posted on the conference website at www.vaumc.org/ac2023feb. A livestream recording of the conference may be found here. Combined with the ten churches that were ratified at the Special Called Annual Conference held on October 29, 2022, this brings to 43 the total number of churches that have disaffiliated from the UMC in the Virginia Conference. The Annual Conference expects to hold additional Special Called sessions on May 6 and October 7 to review any additional disaffiliation requests.
The Virginia Conference consists of over 1,000 churches, 308,490 members and 1,895 clergy, according to the Conference website. In order to counter the disinformation that has arisen regarding the separation process, the denomination has been running the #BeUMC campaign. More information can be found here: https://vaumc.org/beumc/. Newly installed Virginia Conference Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson lamented how issues of separation can be heartbreaking but encouraged us all to find new conviction and courage to carry on the work of making disciples.
Please contact Pastor Melissa, Kathy or Joana if you have any questions.