Regionalization

Regionalization

At the recent General Conference session held April 23 – May 3 in Charlotte, NC, delegates passed eight legislative petitions that would restructure the United Methodist denomination to be more contextual in different regions served by the church. Regionalization is a plan to restructure the United Methodist Church with the goal of making us more just and equitable at the worldwide level while also enabling us to be more missionally effective and contextually adaptable in our various regions throughout the world. Worldwide regionalization is the most important structural change our denomination has seen in a generation! Regionalization stands as distinct from the other work of General Conference. It had been in development for many years, with the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, our denominational Connectional Table, and a team of clergy and laity from Central Conferences outside the United States collaborating on the petitions that were submitted. It received support from delegates from every region.

One of the legislative petitions is an amendment to our constitution. Constitutional amendments must be ratified by an aggregate 2/3 majority vote of all voting members at every annual conference across the connection to be passed. The ratification process should begin no more than 30 days after the close of the General Conference and will continue through November 2025. Reporting on the outcome is anticipated in the spring of 2026. The Virginia Conference will vote on Worldwide Regionalization at Annual Conference in June of 2025. We hoped to be able to vote at this year’s Annual Conference (2024), but unfortunately, our Annual Conference will occur before the official voting materials are made available. To ensure the vote happens appropriately and in good order, the voting process needs to be standardized across all Annual Conferences; and this takes time. Over the next year, leading up to AC 2025, we will provide opportunities for education, Q&A, and further discussion.

On this page, you can find resources about regionalization – including presentations from General Conference and information from the Virginia delegation. We will continue to update this page with information to help keep the Virginia Conference informed and resourced as we all consider this important denominational change.