Pastor's Note

Report on Annual Conference 2025 to the Mariposa UMC

"Thriving in Community"
by Patrick McCarthy, Lay Member, and Pastor Robin

The 177th Session of the California-Nevada Annual Conference began with opening worship on Friday, June 27th, and continued through Monday, June 30. To me, Patrick, this year's conference was exciting, exhausting, entertaining, exhilarating and most of all - to me - like always – was a helpful reminder that this group of people that gathers once a year as a whole is the foundation of the United Methodist Church – local and worldwide! Going to the annual conference gives me inspiration that usually lasts until the next conference.  I want to thank my church for allowing me to be your representative for the annual conference.

During opening worship, the 2025 Conference offering was collected for VIDAS - Vital Immigrant Defense Advocacy and Services. Throughout the day, our new Bishop Sandra K. Olewine was joinedmon the stage by Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., who served the California-Nevada Conference from
2008 - 2016.

Also on stage were the new Conference Secretary, Rev. Akesa Fakava, who was very friendly and out-going, plus our ongoing and inspiring Conference Lay Leader, Micheal Pope, along with Conference Parliamentarian, Paul Extrum-Fernandez. (Paul also heads the Pension Board for our conference, and
coordinates the benefits for retired clergy.)

Within the daily sessions much business of the conference was completed. For instance, on the first day, long serving clergy and laity were recognized for their many years of service. Rev. Burke Owens, the outgoing chair of the Council on Finance and Administration and Diane Knudsen, Conference Treasurer, presented the CFA report and the 2026 Conference Budget which was voted on Monday morning, and approved.

The conference depends on local church tithes like ours, to do the work of the conference. Good God work, church!

Greetings were received in person and via video from the Claremont School of Theology, and Pacific School of Religion, the seminary where Pastor  Robin graduated from in 1999. Various other denominational boards and agencies also reported, including Pastor Robin's Committee on Native
American Ministries (CONAM).

On the first day of conference, Bishop Olewine and Conference Lay Leader Michael Pope gave a joint laity and episcopal address focusing on the 2025 Annual Conference Session (ACS) theme, "Thriving in Community". They challenged the body to find ways to Thrive in Community in new and radical ways as individuals, congregations and as a Conference.

I, Patrick, felt that this joint address was inspiring – very thought provoking – the words that I wrote down on my notes were "God is calling us right now!" – with those words the following was also said "brokenness and injustice of the world" - my interpretation is that is our calling as a church – small and large – no matter the size – we need to participate in the mending of the brokenness and the injustices of the world (or just in our community)! It was repeated over and over during this address that "ALL PEOPLE" need to be included in our actions! The last words I wrote down from this address were "we are a resurrection people." As a local church we need to figure out what that is … how are we going to resurrect?

Important national church business was also address at Annual Conference. Members of the General Conference Delegation, Rev. Dr. Jeffrey Kuan, (Pastor Robin's Old Testament Professor at PSR,) plus Michael Pope and Emily Allen, gave a presentation on the four Constitutional Amendments that were voted on during Saturday morning's plenary session.

Now this is a bit of history, but we want to set the stage.

The 2024 General Conference passed several proposed amendments to the United Methodist Constitution. These unique pieces of legislation only become official once they are ratified by a two-thirds affirmative vote of the aggregate of members to the annual conferences all over the world.  We voted on each of these four amendments during our 2025 Annual Conference Session.

Leadership in our conference were unified in urging "yes" votes to all the amendments.

Note: no results will be publicly tallied until the fall, when every conference has an opportunity to vote.

The amendments are:

1. Worldwide Regionalization. Changing the structure of the UMC to create equity across the worldwide church.

2. Gender and ability inclusion. Expand inclusiveness in church membership, especially as it relates to gender and ability.

3. Racial Justice. Stand against racism and colonialism.

4. Educational requirements for clergy members. Clarify local pastor status regarding who can vote for clergy delegates to General Conference.

As our Cal-Nev Conference (of which Mariposa UMC is a part) is a part of the Western Jurisdiction (i.e. western part of the USA) they provided information to help us cast our vote, including seminars before conference, more details on how this ballot was developed, after the 2024 General Conference.

We hope this isn't too confusing, but we want to make sure that you all know what we learned. It's a very methodical, United Methodist system of getting both clergy and non-clergy (laity) involved. It was exciting for us to be part of this history making process.

There were many moments that I, Patrick, was moved during the conference – the keynote speaker Dr. Stephanie Moore Hand set the conference on fire three times with her ability to inspire through her inspirational words and by detailing her book Doing Justice Together during her talks. I do have a copy of the book and will loan it to anyone who is interested into checking it out. The largest inspiration during the whole conference was during the Lay Session conducted by our Conference Lay Reader Michael Pope – her closing was a story about her bringing meals to a homeless woman in Oakland – the woman lives in a tent on the streets. Through this tie they have built a friendship. One day the woman told Michael that if her life changes like hers did and she ended up on the streets … she was always welcomed to join her at her tent. Michael closed with the inspiring words "Is your tent open too?" I will close with that statement and once again thank you for sending me to the conference!

If you're tech savvy, and want to learn more, links to the online sessions are still available on the Cal-Nevada Annual Conference's YouTube page, https://www.youtube.com/ @calnevumc4926.

In summary the Annual Conference 2025 was prayerful, inspiring, and a joy to attend. We are both grateful for the opportunities we had to attend.

Thank you.