In 2025, lay and clergy members of the NC Annual Conference are voting on whether to ratify four amendments to The United Methodist Church’s Constitution recommended by General Conference in 2024. Members of all annual conferences throughout the world are voting on these four recommended amendments at their annual conference sessions. Ratification requires two-thirds of the aggregate total votes to amend the constitution.
Because conferences meet at varying times throughout the year and because only the final tally of votes determines the outcome, individual vote totals from annual conferences are not shared. The final, aggregate tally of votes will be announced after all conferences have voted and their results certified by each annual conference secretary. A final report from the Secretary of the General Conference is not expected to be shared until later in fall 2025 or early 2026.
During Thursday’s plenary session, Amendments 1 and 2 were scheduled to be voted upon by the Annual Conference. While resources from the NC Conference and from the denomination have been available for several months (nccumc.org/ac2025/voting/amendments), members of the body raised questions about access to the resources and a motion was made to table the vote until members had the opportunity to read the 32 page document outlining Amendment 1. However, Bishop Connie Mitchell Shelton ruled this motion out of order.
After speeches for and against Amendment 1, tellers distributed ballots to individuals eligible to vote (clergy in full connection who are assigned blue lanyards and lay members of annual conference who are assigned red lanyards). Details about lanyards and voting status are included in the conference workbook on page 7 and online at nccumc.org/ac2025/voting.
Ballot #1 – Worldwide Regionalization
This amendment would allow each of eight regions (in the U.S., Africa, Europe, and the Philippines) to make decisions about specific practices to fit within their unique contexts. This ability is already in place in the central conferences, and passing this amendment is a first step to bringing that ability to the U.S. as well. All regions would continue to share a core set of statements, including the Constitution, The Doctrinal Standards, Our Theological Task, The Ministry of All Christians, and The Social Principles. The work of further developing regionalization plans would continue in the coming years so that legislation could then be able to be submitted to the next General Conference in 2028. Denominational resources on this amendment are available at resourceumc.org/en/regionalization.
Ballot #2 – Amends Paragraph 4, Article IV
Through this amendment, the wording of “ability” and “gender” would be added as social categories that clergy cannot use to discriminate against a potential member of a congregation.
The amended paragraph would read:
Inclusiveness of the Church – The United Methodist Church is a part of the church universal, which is one Body in Christ. The United Methodist Church acknowledges that all persons are of sacred worth. All persons without regard to race, gender, ability, color, national origin, status or economic condition, shall be eligible to attend its worship services, participate in its programs, receive the sacraments, upon baptism be admitted as baptized members, and upon taking vows declaring the Christian faith, become professing members in any local church in the connection. In The United Methodist Church, no conference or other organizational unit of the Church shall be structured so as to exclude any member or any constituent body of the Church because of race, color, national origin, status or economic condition.
Links to further information about Amendment #2 are available at nccumc.org/ac2025/voting/amendments.
Due to the extended conversation about Amendment #1, several items on Thursday’s agenda will be moved to future plenary sessions.
The ballots for Amendment #3 and #4 are scheduled to be voted upon during Friday afternoon’s plenary session.