Conferences Form the Heart of UMC’s ‘Dismantling Racism’

by

A United Methodist Insight Exclusive | June 26, 2025

If you’re looking for evidence of The United Methodist Church’s “Dismantling Racism” initiative on its fifth anniversary, train your sights on the 52 U.S. annual conferences. After all, as the official “basic unit” of the United Methodist denomination, it’s logical that any emphasis with the scope of “Dismantling Racism” would lodge in annual conferences.

Titles, program names, and approaches differ, yet the vision remains the same: eradicating racism requires sustained effort over a long time. Furthermore, the most effective approaches begin with educating minds to appreciate, not fear, racial and intercultural differences, say conference leaders.

Once minds are open, hearts and souls follow, say conferences anti-racism leaders.

United Methodist Insight interviewed directors and coordinators of some active annual conference anti-racism programs. We also surveyed every U.S. annual conference’s website and found some form of diversity and inclusion posted on nearly all of them. 

Here are highlights from “Dismantling Racism” efforts in seven annual conferences chosen for their effective campaigns.

Northern Illinois Annual Conference

Consultant Amania Drane says she’s convinced Northern Illinois’ anti-racism efforts wouldn’t be as effective as they are without the conference’s commitment, which began in 2019 before the traumatic high-profile murders of Ahmad Aubery, Breonna Taylor and George Floyd sparked the Council of Bishops’ “Dismantling Racism” initiative.

A former human resources specialist who retired early and went to seminary, Ms. Drane said her experience in the business world, coupled with her growing interest in theology, led her to accept a consulting post with Northern Illinois. She also has become an unofficial coach for those engaged in anti-racism ministry.

“The conference adopted a statement in 2019 saying ‘racism is incompatible with Christian teaching’,” Ms. Drane told Insight. “I’m not sure we’d have had as much success if we didn’t have the unwavering support of conference leadership, and the clergy and laity who volunteer their time through CCORR and the Anti-racism Champion Team."

She said she and the conference committees have been given autonomy and funding to work from the grassroots up on anti-racism efforts. Today Northern Illinois has offered many pathways to anti-racism ministry. Below are a few past and current:

  • Advocacy Day, now in its second year, started with 21 people and this year drew 60 advocates from Northern Illinois and Illinois Great Rivers conferences who visited lawmakers in the capital of Springfield to advocate for humane and anti-racist legislation.
  • Becoming the Beloved Community, a seminar on intercultural competency and radical hospitality, starting in 2021.
  • Black Healing Collective, a place for African Americans to unpack racial trauma.
  • BRIDGE Interreligious Alliance, a collaboration that started in 2024 to build relationships which foster racial and social justice. Its steering committee is composed of practitioners of Buddhism, Catholicism, Judaism, Latter-Day Saints, Islam, Unitarian Universalist and United Methodist traditions.
  • Civil Rights Pilgrimage, a six-day, five-night learning and prayerful journey around the southern United States visiting key sites from the civil rights struggles of the 1950s and 1960s.
  • Collective Action 2 Build Community, a collaboration of universities, libraries, faith communities and grassroots groups, showing movies around a racial justice issue. Ms. Drane wrote in an email: “Our feature film in 2025 is A Binding Truth which will be shown in various locations and online from Wednesday, September 10 to Tuesday, September 16. We have the honor of premiering this film to the public before it airs on PBS in early October.”
  • HEAL (Helping Everyone Access Life) Well, a volunteer outreach that supports the transformative work already being done in urban communities in community gardens to combat food insecurity and mitigating the negative effects of climate change by increasing tree cover to deflect excessive urban heat.
  • Anti-racism Learning Path provides on-ramps for individuals and groups to learn, grow, and engage regardless of where they are in understanding racism.
  • “Lunch-and-learn” session on anti-racism at annual conference.

Ms. Drane said she regularly engages with the racial and ethnic caucuses and other conference standing committees to ensure diverse voices are being heard and to enhance the connection within the conference.

What’s most amazing to her is the grassroots involvement, said Ms. Drane. She cited the 2023 Civil Rights Pilgrimage. The event was initiated by a white woman who is a Certified Lay Minister in a small Illinois town near the Iowa state line who had been on such a trip with an Indiana group and wanted to share the experience with those in the Northern Illinois Conference. She ended up leading the trip, said Ms. Drane.

As for the current federal administration’s anti-diversity policies, Ms. Drane said they’ve had minimal effect on Northern Illinois’ commitment to eradicating racism in church and community.

“We’re attentive to the challenges,” she told Insight. “For instance, we recognize when we do immigration support that information could get back to government monitors. We’re not doing any criminal acts, but we provide clothes and meals, and we advocate for due process. Immigrants and refugees also have rights.”

For conferences and churches that want to step up their anti-racism ministries, Ms. Drane recommends getting to know their surrounding communities first.

“Anti-racism (work) is contextual,” she said. “Know your community, know where you are.”

Holston Annual Conference

The Rev. Leah Burns has been advocating for racial equity and inclusion throughout her 20 years as a United Methodist pastor in Holston Conference.

“It’s my passion,” she said.

Entering her third year as Holston’s associate director of multicultural ministries – a position spawned from the “Dismantling Racism” initiative – Rev. Burns said one of her biggest obstacles has been to educate United Methodists that the conference, which spans eastern Tennessee and portions of north Georgia and southwest Virginia, has significant racial and ethnic diversity.

“It’s been a good learning experience for the churches,” Rev. Burns told Insight. “Some embrace diversity immediately. We’ve always had some churches who are ‘so ready’ for multicultural ministry, while others are not as quick adapters.

“It’s the biggest joy working with local churches, seeing that transformation take place,” she said. “Some work very hard, and others are not as far along in the journey.”

Rev. Burns described Holston’s efforts at dismantling racism as “a work in progress.” In her report to this year’s annual conference session, she challenged her audience to look around their region:

“What you see is that Sunday morning is the most racially, linguistically and culturally segregated hour of the week … still! It is rare to attend a weekly worship service that is fully ethnically, racially, and linguistically diverse. We have been worshipping separately for hundreds of years. ‘Why … that’s the way it’s always been,’ many say. ‘Why would we change?’

“But it is God’s desire that we be in worship and ministry together … not separately … that’s why! Passionate spiritual discipleship thrives in spaces where a whole host of people with diverse perspectives come together,” Rev. Burns’ report said.

To that end, Holston continues to develop resources, collaborating with the General Commission on Religion and Race and other conferences to create cross-racial training. Its Multicultural Ministries webpage lists commitments, actions and resources churches can use to begin their own ministries.

Holston’s multicultural ministry commitments make it clear that working to eradicate racism isn’t a political agenda, but an integral part of Christian discipleship:

  • We will recognize racism as a sin.
  • We will commit to challenging unjust systems of power and access.
  • We will work for equal and equitable opportunities in employment and promotion, education and training; in voting, access to public accommodations, and housing; to credit, loans, venture capital, and insurance; to positions of leadership and power in all elements of our life together; and to full participation in the Church and society.

“We want to make sure people understand that intercultural competency training and anti-racism work go hand in hand,” she said. “Anti-racism works on systems; intercultural competency works on behaviors.”

Rev. Burns said that each training session gets an assessment, and she encourages churches to do their own assessments using one of the available intercultural competency evaluations. The UMC’s “budget crunch” caused by a funding decline from disaffiliations also has been a factor in slowing development.

The anti-diversity-equity-inclusion (DEI) mood of the United States has some Holston United Methodists asking whether the conference should continue multicultural ministries, Rev. Burns said, but she remains undaunted.

“What’s going on in the country is discouraging but we’re in a season when we need to stand up strongly for who we are; that’s what give me hope,” Rev. Burns said. “It doesn’t deter me in my work. We provide tools for people to explain what diversity-equity-inclusion really is: an extension of building the kingdom of God.”

Indiana Annual Conference

Raised a Baptist, the Rev. Lan Davis Wilson, a licensed local pastor, began his United Methodist journey as teaching and worship pastor in Harrisburg, Pa., in a cross-racial setting. He started there right after teenager Trayvon Martin was killed by George Zimmerman in 2012.

Later, as director of worship ministries for the Greater New Jersey Conference, Rev. Wilson said he was so moved by responses to the killings of Breonna Taylor and George Floyd that he emailed his bishop with a terse question: “What are we going to do?”

“We ended up launching the ‘Journey of Hope’ initiative to dismantle systemic racism, but we discovered we needed to do the internal work of anti-racism first,” Rev. Wilson told Insight.

Since moving from Greater New Jersey to become Indiana Conference’s associate director for diversity and inclusion, Rev. Wilson sees dismantling racism as “learning how to live with each other across cultures, being able to understand different experiences.”

As with Holston Conference, Indiana’s multicultural ministry has had to face the perception of limited racial diversity because the state’s population is 92 percent white, he said.

"There’s a lot of somebodies the churches haven’t been able to bring to the table because they assume we’re all the same,” Rev. Wilson said. “I remember, after George Floyd, taking a late-night Zoom call with young people who ask how they can advocate for their black friends when their parents are still loyal to the Ku Klux Klan. And I knew that we had some major work to do.”

While it might surprise some today, Ball State University records that by the early 1920s, Indiana was a center of Klan activity. At its height, the state had more than 250,000 Klansmen.

In light of this history, Indiana has focused on two main approaches to dismantling racism: Cultural Competency 101 and Implicit Bias 101, said Rev. Wilson.

“Doing Intercultural Development Inventory is big,” he said. “Assessing where you are in cultural competency can be super-impactful.”

He added that Indiana recently implemented a new personnel policy for diversity and inclusion that adds Religion and Race representatives to its hiring committee for conference positions.

“We’re making a lot of strides at lasting systemic change,” he said.

One of Indiana’s most effective outreach efforts has been a communications campaign called “Love Unites.” Rev. Wilson chuckled that Indiana “stole” the campaign from neighboring Missouri Conference.

“We invited all Indiana United Methodist churches to change their signs to ‘Hate Divides, Love Unites,’” he said. “We put up billboards and posted messages on social media.

“We didn’t know if it was working until about three months ago when we got a message from a woman in South Bend. She said she’d been apart from the church for a long time, but that reading a ‘Love Unites’ billboard every day for weeks made her believe that God is real.”

Rev. Wilson will leave Indiana in July for a newly established cabinet-level post as director of “belonging and advocacy” in the Virginia Annual Conference. He said he likes the “belonging” concept even more than the idea of inclusion.

“Everybody drives in for church these days, so there’s a cultural gap between the church and the community,” Rev. Wilson said. “It means we have to figure out how we learn from each other, where our values intersect.”

Missouri Annual Conference

The Rev. Kim Jenne disputes the Rev. Lan Davis Wilson’s joke that Indiana “stole” the “Love Unites” campaign from Missouri.

“It’s not stealing, it’s sharing,” she said, laughing.

Rev. Jenne has been Missouri’s director of connectional ministries since 2015. Her first major experience with racism’s effects on a community came in 2014, when she served a United Methodist church about 20 minutes from Ferguson, Mo., where 18-year-old Michael Brown was killed by police officer Darren Wilson.

Wellspring UMC near Ferguson became a gathering point for protests but was soon overwhelmed by the media frenzy and public outrage over Brown’s killing. Rev. Jenne said surrounding churches pitched in by providing laypeople and pastors with communications experience to help field contacts, but the experience was overwhelming for all involved. (Wellspring has since been closed because of declining membership).

“We were all just trying to figure it out,” she said.

Missouri United Methodists live in the shadow of the state’s political history from the Missouri Compromise of 1820, Rev. Jenne said. The Missouri Compromise was a set of laws Congress passed to try to quell rising debate over allowing slavery in territories acquired through the Louisiana Purchase. To balance political power in the U.S. Senate, Missouri was admitted as a slave state and Maine as a free state, but Missourians themselves were divided over the practice, Rev. Jenne said.

“We have this weird position in US history, so we think we have a moral obligation to continue to focus on it,” Rev. Jenne said. “We don’t get a pass on thinking about hard things like race.”

About three years ago, racism reared again in the form of tourism.

“Lake of the Ozarks is a major tourist region, and for many years on the highway leading to the lake a big Confederate flag was displayed on private property,” Rev. Jenne said.

“Bishop Bob Farr is a Missouri native, and he was greatly distressed at the symbolism of the Confederate flag displayed as tourists arrive in Missouri,” she said. “Bishop Farr wondered what the Missouri Conference could do to counteract the symbolism.”

As it turned out, Missouri Lake District resident Amanda Burrows felt the same way. She contracted with Outdoor Signs to post a message, “Equity is Greater Than Hate,” on a billboard that sat below the flag display. When Rev. Jenne contacted Ms. Burrows to offer a contribution from the conference, she discovered that the sign company was demanding Ms. Burrows put her name on the billboard as sponsor.

Ms. Burrows was understandably reluctant to post her identity for security reasons. “She was getting pushback from her neighbors, making life difficult,” said Rev. Jenne.

That’s when Rev. Jenne and other Missouri Conference leaders came up with the idea for “Hate Divides, Love Unites.” They negotiated with the sign company to take over the billboard, and eventually the sign company gave them the back of the display and the front facing the route into the Lake District.

“Love Unites” quickly gained momentum from the rest of the annual conference, said Rev. Jenne.

“United Methodist Communications helped us with yard signs,” she recalled. “We had flags and even gas-station toppers. We’ve also seen our churches make sermon series on ‘Love Unites,’ do their own T-shirts, and give out stickers at annual conference.”

Rev. Jenne said she thinks the success of “Love Unites” probably built on two factors: Bishop Farr’s unwavering support for “Dismantling Racism,” and a 2021 survey of racial attitudes in the Missouri Conference.

“Bishop Farr comes from a small town outside Kansas City,” Rev. Jenne said. “He says, ‘if I can’t have conversations with my colleagues about this, what hope is there for others?’”

Rev. Jenne said Bishop Farr’s commitment has helped other white church leaders examine their minds and hearts about diversity and inclusion.

“He’s helped model that in our conference,” she said. “He has demonstrated for white UMCs that we play a critical, vital role in eradicating racism.”

Further energizing Missouri’s anti-racism efforts was a 2021 survey aided by Discipleship Ministries that provided a baseline of racial attitudes and behaviors, she said.

“Eighty-five percent of the 2,500 respondents said they think anti-racism work is part of Christian discipleship,” Rev. Jenne said. “They wanted the conference staff to work on anti-racism efforts.”

Today Missouri Conference’s “Dismantling Racism” efforts center on three goals listed on the conference website:

  1. Cultivate welcoming environments at Conference and congregational levels by providing training in cultural awareness and resources for Conference staff and local congregations. 
  2. Facilitate courageous conversations regarding the dismantling of racist theologies and practices within our midst. 
  3. Initiate and activate change in policies, practices, networking and recruiting strategies to allow for greater ethnic and cultural representation at the highest levels of leadership.

As with the new United Methodist Social Principles, Missouri’s objectives put it at odds with the current anti-diversity sentiment in federal policies.

“In Missouri we’re not going backwards,” Rev. Jenne said firmly. “Bishop Farr’s address to this year’s annual conference made it clear we’re not going to stop talking about race and culture.”

“We like to think of it as your ‘come from,’” she said. “Everyone has a ‘come from’ and we use that language to connect especially with white Missourians to build their cross-racial stamina. These are the ways we build foundations for more conversations.”

Rio Texas Annual Conference

Conversations around race in this South Texas region of the UMC are literally divine, says the Rev. Miquel Padilla.

“That’s what we call our entry point (on anti-racism education) – Divine Conversations,” Rev. Padilla told Insight.

Rev. Padilla has chaired Rio Texas’ Race and Culture Coalition for three years and now serves as conference staff for equity, diversity and inclusion. What began as a bishop’s task force has evolved into a conference standing committee. The committee’s page on the conference website describes its values:

  • Equity is ensuring all people have fair access, opportunity, resources, and power to thrive, including eliminating systemic barriers and privileges.
  • Diversity is the variety of people and ideas within an organization.
  • Inclusion is creating an environment in which all individuals are valued and connected.

At first, Rio Texas tried working with a consultant to devise a conference training program. However, that attempt proved unsuccessful because it didn’t take into consideration either the UMC’s religious setting or the cultural diversity of South Texas, which includes immigrants from Asia, Central America and South America, said Rev. Padilla.

Instead, the multicultural coalition and consultant Pam Benson came up with the idea of “Divine Conversations.” The ministry aims to offer United Methodist churches and groups a safe space to begin conversations about racism and racial healing, said Rev. Padilla.

“We say, ‘Let’s come together and listen to our stories,’” he explained. “Let’s identify the pain we all experience. We ask, ‘what are some injustices you have experienced?’”

The Rio Texas website includes guidance for what happens after a Divine Conversation occurs. Participants are encouraged to share their experiences with others, to host another Divine Conversation, and to keep learning. To continue learning, the Race and Culture Coalition recommends participants start with three books:

  • Be the Bridge by Latasha Morrison – A powerful guide to racial reconciliation grounded in faith and community building.
  • Heaven Help Us by John Kasich – A compelling call to listen and lead with empathy across our deepest divides.
  • Gracism by David A. Anderson – A biblical approach to confronting bias with radical grace and spiritual maturity.

In 2024, Rio Texas expanded its anti-racism training with a new program, “Embracing Our Differences: A Path to Equity.” The inaugural training held last September drew 54 participants including clergy and laity, especially laypeople serving in conference leadership positions.

“People were a little defensive at first,” Rev. Padilla said of the inaugural session. “But the facilitator focused on building trust. We spent 50 percent of our time on getting to know one another, then we spent time on implicit bias, because everybody has bias whether we know it or not.”

Rev. Padilla commended the ongoing work of conference consultant Pam Benson to the growth of Rio Texas “Dismantling Racism” efforts.

“Dr. Pam holds check-in sessions three times year with people doing anti-racism work to see how they’re doing,” he said. “The sessions create a community for people to share their experiences and find support.”

Even though the times seem to call for decisive action, Rev. Padilla cautioned against moving too quickly with anti-racism campaigns.

“Just because you came to training you don’t have to change the world; start slow,” he told Insight. “You might be well intentioned, but you could do more harm than good (by pushing anti-racism efforts).”

In the end, curriculum like Divine Conversations and Embracing Our Differences are only effective when they inspire United Methodists to change their behaviors about racism, Rev. Padilla said.

“We can train and reach groups, but we must be intentional in living out our values, to create space for minority voices,” he said. “We must really listen and be intentional and listen to those who for years have been outside.

“Just like Divine Conversations, (anti-racism) is a journey; how do I live it out on my own?” Rev. Padilla said. “We can put in legislation or laws or mandates, but people won’t see the beauty and benefits from diversity until they live it themselves.”

Greater Northwest Episcopal Area

When the Rev. Lisa Talbott began her education in intercultural competency, she turned to her family’s genealogy for study. She said she was shocked by what she found.

“When I found the will of my 6th great-grandfather, which bequeathed five people he had enslaved to his son, I was shocked but not surprised,” she was quoted in a Jan. 29 article on her appointment as assistant to Greater Northwest Area Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth for equity and intercultural competency for the Greater Northwest Area, which covers Oregon-Idaho, Pacific Northwest and Alaska conferences.

“I knew the part of the country we were from, and I knew the racism that was alive in our family system, but seeing the actual primary source document that confirmed how my ancestors participated in and benefited from systems of oppression lit a fire in my heart and soul,” she said.

Currently pastor of Homer United Methodist Church in Homer, Alaska, Rev. Talbott takes up her new position on July 1. She responded to Insight’s questions about “Dismantling Racism” in an email while recovering from a respiratory ailment.

“I began my professional life as a high school teacher in the Anchorage School District – one of the most racially and ethnically diverse in the country,” Rev. Talbott wrote. “With 98 different languages spoken among students, I witnessed every day how young people learned to collaborate across cultural lines – forming friendships, study groups, sports teams, and creative projects that reflected the richness of their identities. That formative experience rooted in me a lifelong belief: diversity isn’t a challenge to be solved – it’s a gift to be cultivated.”

Rev. Talbott continued: “While many of our communities in the Greater Northwest Area reflect this kind of vibrant diversity, Sunday morning worship still too often mirrors Dr. King's observation as ‘the most segregated hour of the week.’ That reality calls us into the ongoing, holy work of equity and intercultural development – not just to welcome others into our spaces, but to transform our spaces through the presence, leadership, and wisdom of those historically excluded.”

Rev. Talbott said the Greater Northwest Area is building on “the faithful, foundational work begun by Kristina Gonzalez.”

“Our intercultural competency training focuses especially on churches receiving cross-racial or cross-cultural appointments,” wrote Rev. Talbott. “Through the Intercultural Development Inventory (IDI), trained facilitators support pastors and congregations in exploring tools like the 'cultural iceberg' model, conflict styles across cultures, and how deeply culture shapes our perceptions, behaviors, and values. This work helps participants recognize their own cultural lenses and move toward more effective, compassionate, and just relationships.”

In an article for the Greater Northwest Area website announcing the completion of IDI training for nine administrators, Rev. Talbott described the Intercultural Development Inventory as “a widely respected tool that helps individuals and groups understand how they navigate cultural differences and how they can grow toward deeper intercultural competence.”

Greater Northwest’s IDI effort kicked off May 27 with online overviews for incoming pastors and key laity from congregations receiving cross-racial / cross-cultural appointments, Rev. Talbott wrote in the article. “These will be followed by in-person trainings with an IDI Qualified Administrator at each of the churches, which will include follow-up support,” she said.

IDI administrators will ask:

  • What might the Spirit be teaching us through the diversity of God’s people?
  • What does it mean to truly welcome one another across differences?
  • How can we listen deeply and respond with love, even when uncomfortable?
  • What skills can we cultivate to improve our communication and conflict management?

In her email Rev. Talbott wrote, “One of the most powerful insights from Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth is that every appointment is a cross-cultural appointment. Even within the bounds of one area, our geography spans urban neighborhoods, remote villages, farming towns, coastal communities, and everything in between. (For example) the Alaska Conference receives all its clergy from other places – creating both gifts and growing edges when cultural expectations meet. In this context, intercultural development isn’t a side program – it’s a core practice of discipleship and connection.”

Rev. Talbott said she’s especially drawn to the IDI “because it’s a developmental model.”

“None of us is static,” she said. “Each of us has a task, a next faithful step, a path toward growth. That’s profoundly Wesleyan – echoing our belief in sanctifying grace, in the ongoing transformation of hearts and communities.”

“Today, in the Greater Northwest, we are walking the M.I.L.E.—focusing on Ministry that Matters, Itineration and Location, Lay Empowerment, and Eliminating Racism,” she explained.

“Across our area, equity is not just an aspiration – it is a ministry priority. We’ve seen dozens of clergy and laity participate in equity cohorts, shaping everything from conference structures to how people are welcomed in worship. This is discipleship. This is justice. This is the church becoming more like the kin-dom of God.”

Baltimore-Washington Conference

The Rev. Stacey Cole Wilson, executive minister of Baltimore-Washington Conference’s Beloved Community ministry, leads the conference’s Dismantling Racism efforts. She knows about racism from growing up in Baltimore, Maryland, where her parents involved her in civil rights advocacy and political campaigns, often knocking on neighbors’ doors to register them to vote.

“They believed deeply in freedom and the power of the people, and that grew my sense of purpose,” she said.

Rev. Wilson’s purpose to empower others, and her “belief in the sacred worth of every person,” inspired her to choose ministry over aspirations to become a doctor. Today she leads the conference in campaigning against racism in its many forms, including voter suppression, discriminatory ID laws and mass deportation of immigrants. 

The Baltimore-Washington Conference Discipleship Council invites every congregation to become an “anti-racism church.” To help, the conference website is replete with Dismantling Racism information, resources and opportunities, including:  

Learning

Engaging

  • Brave Conversation Resourcers, people trained to help congregations risk conversations that advance inclusion, diversity, equity, and antiracism. One helpful resource has been The People’s Supper, a grass-roots way of equipping and organizing brave, consequential conversations within communities to foster antiracist inclusivity.
  • A Cross-Racial and Cross-Cultural (CRCC) Leadership Program that offers researched-based ideas and certified training to enhance diversity and inclusion in CRCC pastoral appointments and ministries.
  • The Racial Justice Team, operating as the Religion and Race body to provide the conference and churches with resources and educational opportunities, while meeting regularly to guide overall efforts.

Taking Action

The conference’s new United to Love: "Hate Divides. Love Unites" campaign seeks to mobilize a “shared belief in dignity, justice, and collective liberation.” It provides resources to help churches respond to the Council of Bishops Stand Against the Dismantling of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion Policies.

In addition, the 2025 Annual Conference in June adopted “The African American Affirmation of Faith.”  Created by leaders of Northwood-Appold UMC in Baltimore, it was submitted and approved as a conference-wide worship resource, to be used along with other statements of faith in the United Methodist Hymnal and Book of Worship.

Rev. Wilson ended her 2025 annual Upholding the Values of DEI report with these words:

"We are called to lead with justice and love, advocating for policies that dismantle systemic inequities and transform our communities. Our commitment to diversity, equity, inclusion and accessibility demands action—on both the local and systemic levels. Through prayer, advocacy, and direct action, we can work to create a world that reflects the fullness of God’s kingdom, where all are seen, heard, and valued. Let us act with urgency, compassion, and hope."

Conclusion

Special emphases come and go in The United Methodist Church. Sometimes they meet with great success. Other times they fizzle out with hardly a whisper at their demise.

United Methodist Insight’s survey of annual conferences’ efforts at “Dismantling Racism” shows that the UMC has embraced fully the goal of eradicating racism, even though the effort takes courage, strength, resilience and perseverance. As Part 1 of this series showed, the Council of Bishops and the 13 United Methodist general agencies contribute a necessary and critical role in collaborating with conferences and ensuring that the anti-racism work of the United Methodist Church continues.

A follow-up article in the next issue will take a brief look at efforts in other U.S. annual conferences. In the coming finale of our series, Insight will focus on local churches where “Dismantling Racism” has become an integral part of their ministries in their congregations and communities.

What’s your annual conference’s experience with “Dismantling Racism?” Email your stories to United Methodist Insight with “Dismantling Racism” in the subject line and please include contact information for more details.

Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, an online journal she founded in 2011 as a media channel to amplify news and views about, for and by marginalized and underserved United Methodists.

Insight Editor-at-Large John W. Coleman contributed the Baltimore-Washington Conference report to this article.