ABOUT US

The Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church encompasses the eight westernmost regional conferences of the United States, including United Methodist churches in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington, Wyoming, Guam, and other territory in the Pacific region.

Please read our Vision Statement for some insight into who and what the Western Jurisdiction aspires to be. Details about both the Vision and the Organizational Structure of the jurisdiction are found in pp. 95-117 of the 2004 Journal of the Western Jurisdictional Conference.

2020: Our Emerging Vision

The degree to which our world is changing, and especially the Western United States and Pacific Rim, gives development of a vision for the Western Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church an urgency that we cannot ignore. Changing demographics alone require that by the year 2020 we must have changed as a church, in order to continue to be a faithful and effective vehicle for God’s work. If we are to live into the vision we have developed, we must start now, but we must also continually be open to corrective lenses. Thus, our vision is an emerging vision, moving us to become ever more nearly the church God would have us be.

Foundational to the emerging vision of the Western Jurisdiction is the denominational mission of making disciples for Jesus Christ. The various elements of the following vision all move us in the direction of making disciples: A home for all God’s people, gathered around a table of reconciliation and transformation: the Western Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church is multicultural and inclusive, engaged in the life of its communities, with confident, effective lay and clergy leadership who, in diverse ministry settings, form disciples who live out the Good News of Jesus as global citizens.

For details about the development of the emerging vision, please see pp. 95-99 of the Journal of the 2004 Western Jurisdictional Conference.