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The final section of the 2020/2024 Book of Resolutions, appropriately named Other Resolutions, organizes statements that are not connected to the Social Principles and that do not otherwise belong in the Book of Discipline. Placing them in the Book of Resolutions ensures they have status as official statements of The United Methodist Church. There are now 36 resolutions in this section, compared to 18 in the 2016 edition. Ten of the 36 are classified as new.
Three of the subsections of Other Resolutions have carried over from previous editions of the Book of Resolutions. These include “Mission and Ministry,” “United Methodist Guidelines,” and “Worship and Liturgy.” New to the Other Resolutions section are resolutions formerly appearing under two different subsections of The Social Community “Ecumenical Issues” and “Interreligious Issues” and one from “Global Interreligious Relations” subsection of the former section called The World Community. These along with several new resolutions now appear in a new “Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns” subsection.
Re-written or Expanding on Existing Resolutions
Of the ten new resolutions, two are reworkings of previous resolutions rather than entirely new. “Encounter with Christ in Latin America and the Caribbean” (Resolution 5111) updates both fundraising results (from $1.5 million to $2.5 million raised) and outputs identified (from 50 to 126 joint mission projects completed) compared with its previous version (Resolution 3143, 2016). It also eliminates other outdated information. Similarly, Resolution 5113 “Support for Upper Room’s Emmaus Ministries at All Levels of the Church” reiterates and combines into one two 2016 resolutions (2101 and 2102) that had treated Emmaus Ministries and Chrysalis separately.
A third, “Nurturing and Enabling Cooperative Ministry” (Resolution 5103) builds on the reaffirmed “Facilitating Cooperative Ministry” (Resolution 5102) by offering more specific calls to action to specific groups. It asks three general agencies (Global Ministries, Discipleship Ministries, and Higher Education and Ministry) to help create training events that teach the principles of cooperative ministry. It also urges annual conferences, districts, and local churches to “implement processes” that will enable them to start more cooperative ministries.
Five resolutions on strengthening institutions or relationships
Three new resolutions were intended to shore up the work of specific existing institutions or relationships. MARCHA (Methodistas Asociados Representando la Causea Hispano Americana) submitted Resolution 5115 to recognize to work of the General Commission on Religion and Race and the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women and to attempt some measure of protection for their ongoing work, including fiscal protection, given the anticipated significant cuts to the general church budget. While Resolutions are not the path to inform the final version of the general budget, the proposed World Service Budget did somewhat protect funding for these two agencies, slightly increasing rather than decreasing it. The budget also allowed for their funding on a "fixed charges basis" rather than "on ratio." This means that amounts named in the general church budget are more likely to be the funds these agencies will receive, while many of the larger general agencies will receive funding only in proportion to apportionment dollars received.
Another “institution” of The United Methodist Church has been the inclusion of Children’s Sabbath on the program calendar of the denomination. A proposed resolution came from United Women in Faith to fix that celebration on the third Sunday of October, when most other denomination’s observe it. The UMC, however, had observed Laity Sunday on that day. Instead, the legislative committee altered the resolution to call for the observance of Children’s Sabbath on “a Sunday in October.” This amended version was affirmed as Resolution 5307.
The third new institutional resolution was the full communion agreement between The United Methodist Church and The Episcopal Church (Resolution 5209). While this appears in the current Book of Resolutions, it awaits ratification by The Episcopal Church at their next General Convention (2027). The most significant immediate result of the agreement, once ratified by both denominations, is the conditional interchangeability of ordained priests and deacons of The Episcopal Church and ordained elders and deacons of The United Methodist Church. The agreement also lays the groundwork for substantially greater collaboration and coordination between the two denominations.
“Furthering the Connection” (Resolution 5114) upholds the institutional life of The United Methodist Church at a different level. Rather than focusing on particular institutions, as do the previous three, this resolution underscores three core commitments of the denomination across the entire connection: the principle of connectionalism itself, the nurturing of the real diversity within the denomination, and the inclusion of all people of differing “race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, socioeconomic status, and any other forms of differentiation as full and equal participants in the life and work of the Church.”
The fifth, Resolution 5306, “Social Principles as a Guide to Combating Extreme Nationalism” supports The United Methodist Church’s commitment to its own Social Principles. It defines extreme nationalism as “identification with one’s own nation and support for its interests, especially to the exclusion or detriment of the interests of other nations.” It calls on United Methodists to reject extreme nationalism along with any “personal, national, political, or cultural alliances” as the basis of their public discourse, including in preaching/ Instead, United Methodists are urged to speak to all matters of public interest solely on the bases of the Social Principles and the scriptures that undergird them.
Two brand new topics for the Book of Resolutions
Resolution 5112, “Green Team Formation,” supplements several other additions to the Book of Discipline relating to local church ministry committees and trustees (2020/2024 Book of Discipline, Paragraphs 254 and 2533.8). It provides theological rationale based on scripture, tradition, reason and experience and calls for at least one worship event and one educational event each year to address these concerns. It also calls on each local church to take at least one practical step each year to improve their own environmental stewardship and another to advocate for people who face injustices that ongoing environmental harms cause.
Finally, “A Call for Civility in Public Discourse” (Resolution 5208) asks United Methodists to follow the examples of the discourse of Jesus and Paul in avoiding all forms of “name-calling, personal attacks, demonization of vulnerable groups, and a general dehumanization toward others.” Instead, United Methodists should demonstrate at all times in their public discourse “God’s unconditional love for the world.”
Overall, what we see in the new entries in Other Resolutions is largely an expansion or reframing of existing commitments. The two that introduce entirely new topics (Resolutions 5112 and 5208) come in response to movements in the church and in the world that have been in play for several decades. There is certainly value in helping long-held commitments grow and flower in new ways. And the denomination is at least beginning to address climate change and Christian nationalism in more concrete and robust ways.
Burton Edwards is lead for Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.
