FossilFreeUMC

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After the passage of the fossil fuel divestment resolution, the Cal-Nevada Creation Justice Task Force and Summit Planning Team gather to celebrate. Photo by restaurant staff, used with permission.

By Sharon Delgado

This article presents an overview of 2025 fossil fuel divestment resolutions passed by annual conferences in the Western Jurisdiction. It describes how they were passed in California-Nevada and California-Pacific conferences . A companion article, Divestment Gains in the Western Jurisdiction, focuses on the process in the Pacific Northwest and Desert Southwest conferences.

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As rising annual average global temperatures hover around the 1.5 ͦ C Paris Agreement limit and fossil-fueled disasters accelerate and intensify, several annual conferences in the Western Jurisdiction responded this year to the harm caused by climate change by passing resolutions to divest their conference portfolios from fossil fuels. These include the Pacific Northwest, Desert Southwest, California-Pacific, and California-Nevada annual conferences.

In 2016, these four conferences were among thirteen that petitioned General Conference to add coal, oil, and gas to the list of United Methodist investment screens because of the harm they cause as the primary drivers of climate change. The petition failed, but Wespath responded to the demand for divested funds by establishing their fossil free Social Values Choice funds, which “do not invest in companies that derive a significant amount of revenue from involvement in the fossil fuels industry, or in certain companies subject to annual conference resolutions concerning peace in the Middle East.” By creating and now expanding these Social Values Choice funds, Wespath has made it easier for clergy and annual conferences to divest from fossil fuels and “conflict funds” while keeping their investments with Wespath. 

This year’s annual conference divestment actions have also been assisted by the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement, a movement that works across annual conferences to provides resources on creation care and creation justice. Fossil Free UMC, a network of United Methodists who advocate for the denomination to divest from fossil fuels, was also instrumental in providing resources and encouragement for these efforts.

A 2024 California-Nevada (Cal-Nevada) Annual Conference recommendation calling for a Summit on fossil-fuel divestment set the stage for the 2025 fossil-fuel divestment resolution.

The conference Committee on Finance and Administration (CFA) hosted the Fossil Fuel Divestment Summit in March 2025 at the Conference Center in Sacramento. Representatives of conference finance agencies attended in person, along with the leadership of the conference United Women in Faith and the Climate Justice Ministries Task Force. It was also livestreamed and recorded.

Bishop Sandra Olewine kicked off the Summit with a prayer and words of support and encouragement for the effort, followed by the keynote speaker, William Morris, a young man employed at Greenfaith and now beginning seminary at Claremont. He spoke of his experience growing up in a Southern California neighborhood next to an oil refinery and about his experiences and the outreach he was involved in during this year’s catastrophic LA fires. Other speakers brought a variety of perspectives on fossil fuel divestment. According to Rev. Burke Owen, Chair of the CFA:

“William Morris’ personal testimony about growing up in the middle of the refineries, speaking to the negative effects that his community dealt with and still does was moving and humbling. Rev. Jim Antal testified like one of the original climate warriors, speaking the truth that his long journey has imbued in his soul. Jake Barnett [from Wespath] brought the reality of the investment and financial world into the discussion but in a very forthright, pragmatic and heartfelt manner. Julia Frisbie (from the Northwest Faith Foundation] expressed her joyful surprise at the success in the Pacific Northwest going fossil free a few years ago, and how successful the relationship with Wespath has been in ensuring both conference investments and Faith Foundation Northwest portfolios are well managed. Finally, Dan Cohn [Energy Finance Analyst with the Institute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis] brought so much energy, and so many graphs and charts. But he explained them all so well that even the graph and chart phobes were happy. He gave us a very practical path forward for divestment in our AC.”

Following the Summit, the conference Climate Justice Ministries Task Force submitted four legislative items, which all passed on the consent calendar at Annual Conference in June, including the Resolution for Fossil Fuel Divestment. The Cal-Nevada Conference United Women in Faith hosted a breakfast focused on climate justice and fossil fuel divestment, and the Summit Planning Team and Climate Justice Ministries Task Force celebrated the victory at a dinner at the Old Spaghetti Factory in Sacramento. Rev. Joan Pell, Chair of the Task Force, said,

“It is encouraging to know that our conference funds will soon not support businesses that produce coal, oil and gas, or that own reserves of coal, oil and gas. Instead, it is hoped that our money can be invested in ways that care for creation using sustainable sources of energy and help the world transition away from fossil fuels and get closer to net-zero emissions. The impacts of fossil fuel pollution disproportionately affect poorer countries and communities, so this is also an act of justice.”

California-Pacific (Cal-Pac) fossil-fuel divestment legislation this year follows the devastation of the 2025 January fires in Los Angeles. During and after the fires, the conference provided shelter. organized relief and helped with cleanup to people who had been forced to evacuate and whose homes were lost.

Several Cal-Pac church members watched the livestream of Cal-Nevada’s Summit, including William Morris’ stories of his experiences during the fires. A small group decided to try to pass a resolution calling on their own annual conference to divest from fossil fuels, led by Dr. Lois Knowlton, a member of La Mesa United Methodist Church and President of the church’s unit of United Women in Faith (UWF). Dr. Knowlton, also a member of the leadership team of Fossil Free UMC, initiated the effort to submit a Resolution to Begin a Process to Divest from Fossil Fuels to the Cal-Pac Annual Conference.

According to Dr. Knowlton, “The motivation to propose the resolution began when an Earth Care Ministry was established at the La Mesa First UMC. The United Women in Faith’s Just Energy for All campaign also played a role in motivating Esther Bratner and me to join the Fossil Free UMC coordinating committee, which encouraged us to take the issue to our Cal-Pac conference in solidarity with actions taken by other conferences in the Western Jurisdiction.” She added, “I was also motivated by the fact that UWF was strongly on board and by the successful California-Nevada summit.”

The conference committee that would ordinarily have led this effort had a new chair, and at the urging of Dr. Knowlton and other United Women in Faith, La Mesa UMC’s pastor, Rev. Christian DeMent, agreed to submit the resolution, which they adapted from a model fossil fuel divestment resolution created by Fossil Free UMC. 

Dr. Knowlton says, “getting the resolution through was all his doing,” and gives Rev. DeMent full credit, especially for rushing to gather the needed fifteen co-signers to submit the resolution, even after the official deadline had passed. The Legislation to divest from fossil fuels was accepted as a late legislative addition on the floor of the conference and received overwhelming support. Dr. Knowlton responded, “The 89% vote in favor of the resolution was thrilling.  Our hope is that all the promises in the resolution will now be realized and will motivate other conferences to do the same.”

The two other Western Jurisdiction annual conferences to pass fossil-fuel divestment legislation this year were the Pacific Northwest and Desert Southwest. The Pacific Northwest conference has been a leader in the movement to divest from fossil fuels from the beginning. This year’s legislation affirmed the 2024 General Conference for passing legislation addressing creation justice while continuing to support full denominational divestment. One of their resolutions was Encouraging Fossil Fuel Divestment for Denominational Funds. The Desert Southwest conference was also one of the early supporters of fossil fuel divestment. In 2023 it passed a resolution to achieve net-zero greenhouse gas emissions by 2050. A resolution to divest as a conference from fossil fuels failed to pass in 2024 by ten votes, but this year’s Divesting from Fossil Fuels resolution passed with a strong majority. Find out more about the process in these two annual conferences in the companion article, Divestment Gains in the Western Jurisdiction.

Fossil Free UMC celebrates these victories and continues to call for the United Methodist Church to screen out fossil fuels from our investments “at all levels of the church,” including individual investors, churches, annual conferences, and the general agencies of the church, especially Wespath. The harm caused by the extraction, transport, processing, and burning of fossil fuels causes immeasurable harm now, especially to children and to vulnerable countries and communities, and will leave a legacy of harm into the foreseeable future if left unaddressed. By divesting from fossil fuels, we free up church funds for goods and services that foster a just transition to a clean energy future.

The Rev. Sharon Delgado is an elder in the California-Nevada Annual Conference and Convener of Fossil Free UMC.