Decolonizing the Church

Written By Israel Alvaran

Regionalization for The United Methodist Church

THE CHRISTMAS COVENANT: AN EQUITABLE GLOBAL REGIONAL STRUCTURE

Conceived and promoted by leaders from Central Conferences, and submitted to General Conference by PAC-Cavite, the Christmas Covenant “envisions a Church that connects globally, engages in mission together, respects contextual ministry settings, celebrates the diversity of God’s creation in its many beautiful expressions, and values mutually empowering relationships in order to strengthen our core mission of evangelism, discipleship, and social witness for the transformation of the world.”

VALUES

  • Unity and connectional relationships rooted in mission.

  • Understanding diverse contextual ministry settings.

  • Legislative equity for regional conferences of the church.

WHAT WILL IT ACCOMPLISH

  • Transforms each central conference into a regional conference, and as proposed by the Connectional Table, creates a U.S. regional conference.

  • Creates equity among regional conferences by giving them equitable legislative power to adopt policies and practice ministry and mission in their own unique contexts.

  • Maintains our doctrinal standards (Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith), Social Principles, General Conference, General Agencies, Judicial Council, and Council of Bishops.

  • Maintains the unity of the church for global mission.

 

WHAT ARE BISHOPS SAYING?

"The central conference bishops will promote and solidly support the U.S. regional conference proposal." -- Bishop Harald Rückert, Germany Central Conference

“I believe this proposal will enable us to live more fully as a worldwide church. It will give the church in the U.S. a structure to deal with its unique missional challenges and to do its visionary, strategic and administrative work.” -- Bishop Christian Alsted, President, Connectional Table

“There are particular issues that have nothing to do with Africa... I’d rather that we just be a regional conference.” -- The late Bishop John Yambasu, Sierra Leon

ENDORSEMENTS (2022)

  • Connectional Table

  • All 5 U.S. Jurisdictional Conferences

  • Cavite Philippines Conference

  • South Nueva Ecija Philippines Conference

  • Bicol Philippines Provisional Conference

  • East Mindanao Philippines Conference

  • Mindanao Philippines Conference

  • Northwest Mindanao Philippines Conference

  • Visayas Philippines Conference

  • North Texas Conference

  • California-Pacific Conference

  • California-Nevada Conference

  • Mountain Sky Conference

  • Oregon-Idaho Conference

  • Baltimore Washington Conference

  • Northern Illinois Conference

  • Virginia Conference Delegation

  • Florida Conference Delegation

  • United Women in Faith

  • UMC Inter-Ethnic Strategy and Development Group

  • Western Methodist Justice Movement MARCHA (UMC Hispanic Caucus)

  • Love Your Neighbor Coalition

 

"We are longing for a United Methodist Church that will move towards new forms of being a connectional church, a General Conference focused on global essentials, and an empowerment of regions for contextually relevant forms of living our common mission mandate." -- UMC Council of Bishops

“We recommend the following for restructuring the United Methodist Church... The UMC is to be restructured into regional conferences... [that] have the authority to decide their witness, mission, and ministry, thus, preserving locality and connectionality.” -- Philippines Central Conference College of Bishops

FOR MORE INFORMATION:

WWW.CHRISTMASCOVENANT.COM / WWW.FACEBOOK.COM/CHRISTMASCOVENANT

Israel Alvaran
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