The 2020/2025 General Conference passed an important amendment to The United Methodist Constitution. It’s called Paragraph 4, Article IV, and this is what it says:
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.
The amended portion of the Constitution adds ability and gender to existing social categories that clergy in The United Methodist Church cannot use to discriminate against a potential member. This amendment makes it clear that a person cannot be denied membership to the local church because of their gender or their ability.
Just like regionalization, this amendment can be debated on the annual conference floor, but it cannot be changed. Like other constitutional amendments, it requires that two-thirds of the voting members of all annual conferences across the world vote yes, to be ratified.
The results of the vote we take in May will not be announced, so that we don’t influence other conferences’ votes. After all conferences have had an opportunity to ratify the amendments, the Council of Bishops will review the votes and announce the results.