On behalf of the Northern Illinois Conference delegates to the 2020/2024 General Conference, I celebrate the ratification of the four constitutional amendments that affirm our commitment to becoming a fully inclusive church that celebrates diversity and condemns racism, as United Methodists.

Rev. Alka Lyall explains the constitutional amendments to members of Annual Conference 2025.

The ratified amendments include:

• Regionalization, which will reorganize the denomination into regions based on our geographical locations, thus providing freedom to create and develop contextually relevant decisions while continuing to be a global connection.
• Inclusion in Membership, which adds “gender” and “ability” to the list of identifiers that cannot be used to bar folk from church membership.
• Educational Requirements for Voting Rights, which changes ¶ 35, Article IV, to clarify the educational requirements for clergy voting for delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conferences.
• Racial Justice, which revises Article V to strengthen the denomination’s commitment to racial justice.

The ratification was done with more than 90 percent support for each of these amendments. It indeed is a new day in the life of our denomination, and this ratification is an indication that United Methodists are ready to work towards living into our commitment to equity, justice, and inclusion.

We know that a lot more work needs to be done to restructure the denomination into regions. It is time for us to put the other policies into practice and live out these amendments into our daily lives by loving boldly, serving joyfully, and leading courageously, as our UMC vision statement says.

I also invite our prayerful support to those who will begin the work of restructuring and creating resources to assist our work of racial justice and full inclusion.