At the end of 2024, Bishop Dan Schwerin wrote in his column "Can 2005 Be the Year of Grace?" that “grace is the unmerited, upbuilding, unconditional love God extends to all people and to the whole creation. United Methodist have and expansive view of grace. We know that grace is always among us, working in love.”

 Sometime in the 1970s, when I was a young wife and teacher, my mother and I were talking on the phone. She was quite upset about an experience she had as a member of the Northern Illinois Annual Conference session. She and Pastor Joseph Buckles had just returned from the Conference, disappointed about the time spent on language in The United Methodist Book of Discipline that reinforces the restrictions and exclusions of people from membership or ministries based on gender, gender identity, ability, and other identifiers.

I remember her saying, “If Jesus welcomed all to the table, so should we. The conference had much more important work to do!” Her voice broke on those words. I tried to reassure her, but my mother held a firm belief that wrong had been done and good people had not stopped it. I had no idea the time for change would not come until 2025, 24 years after her death in 2001, and that I would have the opportunity to be a small part of the change.

Rev. Fabiola Grandon-Mayer and Jeany Gewin (right)

Last year at Annual Conference, Bishop Dan Schwerin encouraged me to write about my experience at conference and its connection to my mother's service as a member. It was a monumental conference for many and there I fulfillled my posthumous promise to my mother, Mrs. David (Edna) Chase.  As her obituary said, she was a homemaker and substitute teacher. She and my father lived in Virginia, Pennsylvania, and Illinois. She was an active member of the Olympia Fields United Methodist Church, where she served as a member of the Staff-Parish Relations Committee and as a Stephen minister, lay leader, Sunday school superintendent, and president of United Methodist Women. She was delighted to serve as a member of 30 years of Annual Conferences.

Around the year 2000, after a UMW district meeting at First United Methodist Church in Princeton, I was chatting with the district superintendent about my work as president of our church's United Methodist Women and my job as district director of communications. He asked if that gave me some perspective of the needs of women in the district and we both laughed. It turned out he had room for district representatives to Annual Conference, and I could feel my mother cheering softly in my ear, “Take my place, Jeany.”

Opening doors

God opened the door for me to make a contribution at the conference level. I knew she would have wanted me to have some part in opening doors that had been shut years earlier, and I desperately wanted to be part of the solution. I did begin to read more thoughtfully and pray with more focus as soon as information about the upcoming session appeared on the conference web site.

In 2025, I realized God was once again opening a door. Understanding my health was failing and meeting the challenge of preparing as a full district representative for many more years might be too much, I felt grateful this was to be the year when we would vote on amendments to the United Methodist Church's constitution.  

Regionalization: This amendment organized the United Methodist Church into geographic bodies. It put all conferences on an equal footing and enable them to pass rules relevant to their own contexts.

Inclusion in membership: This amendment added "gender" and "ability" to the list of characteristics that do not bar people from membership in a United Methodist congregation.

Racial justice: The complete revision of the constitution’s Paragraph 5, Article V strengthened the denomination’s longtime support for racial justice.

Educational requirements for voting rights: The amendment allows clergy (ordained or licensed) who meet certain educational requirements to qualify to vote for clergy delegates to General and Jurisdictional conferences.

Solemnly, asking Jesus to give me physical and spiritual strength, I promised him and my mother, who seemed right in the room with me, that I would do my part at conference. I studied the issues and wording, and I reluctantly accepted the fact that I would not know the results of ratification of the constitutional amendments for several weeks.

I thanked the Lord that I would be present to listen, speak, and vote for change in the language in the Discipline. I prayed for courage and the right words. And I wore my mother’s engagement ring around my neck. I knew mine would be a small, almost invisible part, but I also knew many small parts make a difference. And those many small parts were far more than I realized that day.

In her article "Young Voices Matter," Rev. Fabiola Grandon-Mayer, the conference's director of connectional ministries, wrote about churches and donors who reached out in love to care for immigrants in desperate need. The significance of her words is that these immigrants are part of us, no longer “others,” but welcome even in times of danger.

“Scripture reminds us to stand with the marginalized, to bear one another’s burdens, and to embody God’s justice and compassion," she wrote. "This was an opportunity to live out that calling in tangible and faithful ways. More than financial assistance, this appeal was a visible expression of solidarity. It declared that our immigrant siblings in Christ are not alone. Together, we are choosing to be a community of hope, courage, and resilience.”

Such beautiful words, words that reflect the openness we have affirmed in our Discipline.

At Annual Conference in June we will observe the Year of Hope. For me, it will be a year of hoping the change in the Discipline will continue the change in the our connectional church, hoping our hearts will really be open to all, that we will see the image of God in the souls of every person, a discipline I am working on myself right this minute.

In the introduction to the 2026 theme,  the article "Gathering in Hope Together" quotes Bishop Dan Schwerin as saying, “Grounded in Romans 5:3-5, this year’s theme encourages us to remember that endurance builds character, and character builds hope, pouring love to us through the Holy Spirit.  Guided by this spirit, participants will engage in opportunities to practice hope, build stronger bonds, and discern God’s call in their lives.”  

To my mother

Now we enter the year of hope, and I will attend Annual Conference as a volunteer, helping the voting members check in and greeting them, both clergy and laity, some of whom have become friends and members of my extended faith community. I will sing one more time in the mass choir. John and I will be there to hear Bishop Schwerin preach and to see the commissioning of Kelly McKune, whose call began in our church. The next day I’ll work in the morning, and we will attend the memorial service where I will remember so many pastors who have touched my life and hear the Rev. Dr. Brian Gilbert preach.

Rev. Fabiola Grandon-Mayer has said, "As we gather this year, my prayer is that we rediscover hope not as an idea, but as a discipline.”

May it be so, Mom; may it be so.  

In Jesus name, Amen.