Each year, the annual conference solicits resolutions from conference and district boards and committees, local churches, and local church members. These resolutions bring attention to issues both international and local in scope. The writer of the resolution brings information to the body and invites the annual conference to act on it in the vein of John Wesley’s call to: “Do all the good you can, by all the means you can, in all the places you can, at all the times you can, to all the people you can, as long as ever you can.” By passing a resolution, members of the annual conference are able to communicate priorities on these topics to the media, elected leaders, and General Conference.
This year, the Resolutions Committee received eight resolutions. Friday afternoon, Rev. Ben Wolf, chair of the Resolutions Committee, presented the first four to the body.
The first, “Inclusivity in the Communion Liturgy”, was submitted from the Annual Conference Session for Youth at their gathering in July 2023. The resolution encouraged a change to communion liturgy language. Today, annual conference voted to refer the resolution back to the Annual Conference Session for Youth (meeting later this summer) for clarification because the communion liturgy language stated as needing revision does not appear in the official United Methodist Hymnal.
The next resolution, entitled “Furthering Research on the Impact of Disaffiliation on NC Youth Ministry and Ministerial Programs”, encouraged the members of the annual conference to research the impact of the denomination-wide disaffiliation on a local level within youth ministry. This resolution was amended to request a survey of youth in the NC Conference to determine the impact of disaffiliation on them. The amendment requests these survey results be shared with the members of the next session of the annual conference. This resolution passed as amended.
The third resolution: “Menstrual Products in All North Carolina United Methodist Church Bathrooms” also brought from the 2023 Annual Conference Session of Youth, urges churches to have menstrual products in all bathrooms within church facilities. This resolution passed.
The fourth resolution, entitled “An Invitation to the Council of Bishops and Individual Bishops to Repent and Apologize”, was brought by Rev. Paul Stallsworth and asked for the annual conference to urge The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church to repent for actions taken in the past around human sexuality and church polity. After one speech in support and one speech against, the question was called, and the resolution did not pass.
The remaining four resolutions will be voted on during the Saturday morning plenary.