The General Conference shared in a confession of faith during our last worship service. Bishop Tracy Smith Malone echoed the words of David in Psalm 46. “Be still and know that I am God! I am exalted among the nations; I am exalted in the earth” v. 10.
“God is always working for God’s good and our good…and to God’s divine purpose in the world and in our lives…even when the evidence seems otherwise. Now that we are going back to our respective parishes, let us go forward in faith. We go to make disciples of all nations…seeing all the people…seeing everybody as God’s somebody...as beloved children of God and baptizing them in the name of Jesus Christ.”
“Show up in love. How we go matters!”
We have certainly been blessed by a great diversity of worship leaders, music and preachers who have demonstrated the breadth and depth of our beloved church. Each morning worship gave us a boost of energy and purpose to face the agenda of the day.
In our role as GCSRW monitors we were attuned to the balance among female, male, and nonbinary speakers in all of our interactions. We were encouraged by the balance we saw within the totals from the legislative committees. This balance quickly disappeared when we moved to the plenary sessions of the second week. This was reported to the gathered body in our printed daily reports and in the morning reports presented by the General Secretaries of GCSRW and GCORR. The following charts reflect how we did as compared to the distribution of delegates.
On Thursday May 2, 2024, the nominees for board members of the General Council on Finance and Administration were elected. A delegate raised a point of inquiry and asked that GCSRW and GCORR review the list of those elected and report to the body on the gender, ethnicity, and status of those elected. At the time of submission of this report on the last day of General Conference 2024, GCSRW had not been asked to report the results of this examination of the data. Therefore, we are publishing those results as part of our final monitoring report:
- The list of nominees found on page 2198 of the DCA consists of 16 persons to be electedas GCFA board members. Four nominees were women and 12 were male. Ten were clergy and six were laity.
- Paragraph 805 in the Book of Discipline sets the process for the selection of the list of nominees for the Board of Directors of GCFA.
- GCFAhas the ability tomitigate the disparity of female and lay board members with whom they choose to fill the five at-large members to serve, in addition to those who were elected at this General Conference.
- GCSRW will follow up and publish the results when all members of GCFA are elected at its organizational meeting.
Monitoring is an important mechanism of our church body gatherings, especially as we look to have full and equal participation of women and racial/ethnic participants. We encourage monitoring beyond just our General Conference meetings. GCSRW uses monitoring in a variety of ways. Our Women by the Numbers section of the website displays the ways that United Methodists can monitor and help keep our meetings accountable to the membership and make our gatherings more representative and equitable.
Monitoring is a significant way to examine how representative we truly are compared to the membership of our annual conferences, district gatherings, and local church meetings. This is a great way to incorporate the work of annual conference COSROWs. If you need resources to enact this work in your local area, please see our site and reach out to us. We would love to empower you with resources to grow your AC COSROW!
The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women is committed to challenging The United Methodist Church to live into its calling to reflect the full and equal participation of women and men, lay and clergy of all levels of ministry. Over the past two weeks, we have watched the Church move into a fuller understanding of what it means to make space and to value all voices in the room. We are thankful for the GCSRW official monitors, who gave their time and attention to the work of the legislative committees, plenary sessions, and worship experiences. The monitors were prepared and willing to assist wherever needed. They collaborated with one another as well as their siblings from GCORR to discuss the intersectionality of their data. We are moving ever forward on our journey. “Great is God’s faithfulness; God’s mercies are new each morning” Lamentations 3:23.
We celebrate the openness of the Commission on General Conference who invited GCSRW to provide daily monitoring reports throughout our time of holy conferencing. On more than one occasion General Secretary Wiggins Hare was called to the floor to provide information on the topic at hand.
Additionally, GCSRW respectfully requests that future General Conference registration processes collect demographic information of all delegates that is shared with the Church before General Conference begins in order to facilitate the collection of data for monitoring reports and reporting to the Church.
The monitoring team included 11 women and 3 men, with representatives from all five jurisdictions. They are:
Rev. Dr. Elizabeth Abel
Rev. Sheila Bates
Rev. Dr. Tori Butler
Elizabeth Gracie, Esquire
Rev. Calvin Hill
Rev. JD Herrera
Rev. Kelli Hitchman-Craig
Rev. Juyeon Jeon
Rev. Diane Kenaston
Dr. Christina Lee
Dr. Gene Lammers
Rev. Julia Pritchett Gonzalez
Rev. Lorrin Radzik
Rev. Kalesita Tu’ifua
Special Thanks:
Writing Team: Rev. David Dodge, Rev. Kelli Hitchman-Craig
Media: Rev. Emily Nelms Chastain
Legislative Task Force Chairperson: Rev. Katrena King
Photography: Joscelyne Cutchens, who was the only officially credentialed female photographer at the General Conference.
GCSRW Staff: Aileen Delgado, LeeAnn Goldman, Meg Lassiat, Denise Smartt Sears, Becky Posey Williams
General Secretary: Dawn Wiggins Hare
To stay connected with the work of GCSRW and its Annual Conference COSROW work, we encourage you to subscribe to our monthly email newsletter, Wisdom Talks. Each edition discusses and explores the four areas of GCSRW’s work across the worldwide church: Leadership, Education, Sexual Ethics, and Monitoring. Read more and subscribe here!
For additional resources available from The General Commission on the Status and Role of Women scan this QR code or visit our Link Tree at https://linktr.ee/gcsrwumc
