Every year annual conferences meet to do the work of the church and conference, seeking to live faith through worship and agreements about how to live a life together as people of God. The worship part fills the soul while the agreements part, which begins by bringing legislation or a resolution (same thing) to the annual conference session, can be a little more confusing, worrying, or frustrating.
Above Video: The recording of the January Movement Cafe from the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement introducing model resolutions for 2026.
United Methodists build agreements around how to live faithfully in church and the world together through a set of principles and discipleship commitments. Those principles and commitments are discussed, agreed, then published in the United Methodist Books of Discipline and Resolutions as well as annual conference journals and local church charge conference minutes.
Faithful dialogue and agreement as to how we live life together is part of the discipleship work of the church–it is part of how we follow Jesus. Yet to be the one who brings legislation or a resolution to the floor of the annual conference can be a daunting experience. We have all sent prayerful encouragement to colleagues and siblings who stand up at the microphone at annual conference, their faces projected onto 20 foot screens in front of God and everybody, as they speak “for” or “against” a proposed resolution.
We all want to be composed in moments like that. Unfortunately that is not always the case. For myself, too often I find I am in front of the microphone with my whole heart… sputtering red faced, short of breath, a little sweaty, and somehow I have forgotten what nouns are. This is all part of the process. Its okay. Do it anyway.
And I have something that can help. What can help a racing heart is to be ready with good notes, good information to draw from, and a firm conviction that your testimony matters.
There are two parts to every resolution. There is the resolution itself, these paragraphs usually begin “THEREFORE…” and follow with the brass tacks of the agreement itself: THEREFORE we WILL do this and we WILL NOT do that. When bringing divestment resolution to the floor of the annual conference, the Therefore part speaks to WHAT and HOW divestment will be accomplished.
There is another really important part to the resolution, and that part is the WHEREAS section. This part is the WHY. The Whereas section speaks to why this issue so important that I am standing at the microphone at annual conference, a little sweaty, a little breathless, and very red in the face, to entreat my siblings-in-faith that this resolution is an essential part of life lived faithfully together as disciples of Jesus Christ.
Communicating the WHY could not be more important. WHEREAS sections usually quote scripture and the Book of Discipline as well as other urgent facts or circumstances that the body of the annual conference needs to know in order to make a faithful agreement and be in discernment together around the topic of the resolution.
For an issue like divestment and climate change, writing and presenting a WHEREAS section is vital but can be daunting. This is why I appreciate Rev. Sharon Delgado’s new revised edition of Love in a Time of Climate Change so much. The book is the entire WHEREAS section. Sharon brings the WHY. And she does it in an important way, she shows us WHY it is faithful to divest from fossil fuels and act on climate change because it as a faithful and rightful act of discipleship, it brings life to our life together, and it exactly aligns with the narrow (yet all encompassing!) path of salvation in the Wesleyan Way.
Sharon brings trustable science, personal and community witness, and Wesleyan theology and discipleship together to show WHY we must act.
Pass divestment legislation in your annual conference. Speak boldly as Wesley would do!! This book will help you. It will give you the truthful facts as well as the faithful assurance that Justification, Sanctification and Assurance are standing with you as witnesses to your words. Stand and speak with conviction. Let your hands shake. You are not alone, millions stand with you looking up from the truth all around us–the floods, the droughts, the fires, the hope that we can and will build a better life together. You got this.
Resources:
- Find possible divestment resolutions you can bring to your annual conference here (#9, #10, & #11) and on Fossil Free UMC (here and here).
- Read a guide to pass legislation in your annual conference.
- Get inspired by stories from annual conferences where divestment resolutions passed (by wide margins), here, here, & here.
- Watch the January Movement Cafe from the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement. Rev. Sharon Delgado is one of the presenters at the cafe, and she speaks to her book as a resource for your effort, as well as to the possible resolutions themselves.
- Read a review of Love in a Time of Climate Change, Revised Edition.
Cover photo: Rev. Laura Baumgartner speaks to resolutions for divestment and creation justice from the floor of the 2024 Pacific Northwest Annual Conference (the resolutions passed by overwhelming numbers). Photo by Richenda Fairhurst.
Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. For more conversations, see the team at the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement Café.
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