Report submitted by Monalisa Tu’itahi and Rev. Anna Cho, Chairs, Western Jurisdiction Leadership Team
March 9–10 was the annual gathering of the Western Jurisdiction Leadership Team in Sacramento, California. Elected leaders from across the West gathered for a time of prayer, reflection, and discernment about the connectional work of the Western Jurisdiction. Leaders from each Annual Conference and members of jurisdictional ministry teams received updates and identified priorities for collaborative work and support.
An emerging focus for the work of this team is building and strengthening relationships both within the Western Jurisdiction and across the United Methodist connection at this time of denominational transition. Participants heard stories of innovation, faithfulness, witness, compassion, reimagined stewardship, and transformation from each annual conference.
Under the Western Jurisdiction’s call to Love Without Limits, this team identified two areas of priority for the coming year: Wellness and Healing in the Church and Faithful Resistance.
Conversations around the rapid changes that communities, leaders, and churches are facing highlighted a growing need to support and ground our work of ministry in God’s call for wholeness and wellness. The health of congregations, clergy and lay leaders, and communities is critical to faithfully responding in love as disciples of Jesus Christ. Leaders named the importance of addressing burnout, strengthening sustainable leadership practices, and creating spaces for healing and renewal across the church. The Western Jurisdiction will be looking for ways to support conferences in connecting around wellness as well as offer an opportunity for leaders to gather and tend more deeply to their own wellness.
The second emerging priority is grounded in the urgent need for the church to continue to provide an active witness to Christ’s call to love. The call to faithful resistance is part of the church’s discipleship in a time of social and political tension. Throughout the Western Jurisdiction, congregations are accompanying migrants, advocating, and responding to the needs the most vulnerable. Leaders affirmed that the church is called to compassion and courageous witness—standing with those on the margins and embodying Christ’s love in ways that seek justice, healing, and dignity for all. The Western Jurisdiction will be working with different conference, jurisdictional, and denominational bodies and leaders to plan broad action and learning to model faithful resistance and strengthen education for engagement.
In the coming months, the Western Jurisdiction Leadership Team will continue developing opportunities for collaboration around these priorities, working alongside conferences, ministry partners, and the College of Bishops to support the ongoing mission of the church in the West.
The meeting ended with a Communion circle, led by Bishop Kristin Stoneking, President of the WJ College, where the Leadership Team was joined by the Committee on Episcopacy as they began their meeting, as well as the Cal-Nevada Conference bishop and cabinet.
