The United Methodist Church's shared life includes decisions made across countries and regions. Its General Conference acts as the denomination's top lawmaking body, while annual conferences bring together lay and clergy members. Decisions in 2024 and the ratification of Worldwide Regionalization in 2025 changed parts of church policy and structure. The following account explains those decisions and the standards the denomination continues to share.
The 2024 General Conference
General Conference met in Charlotte, North Carolina, from April 23 through May 3, 2024, with more than 700 delegates from four continents. The assembly adopted revised Social Principles, ended bans on gay clergy and same-sex weddings, and approved constitutional changes for regionalization. UM News's account of the assembly describes these as distinct decisions. The clergy and wedding changes were already in effect when that account appeared in May 2024; the revised Social Principles took effect the following January. Regionalization still required ratification beyond General Conference.
Revised Social Principles
The revision followed an international process lasting 12 years. Its purpose was to make the denomination's teachings on contemporary social issues more globally relevant, grounded in theology, and succinct. The revised text removed the assertion that the practice of homosexuality was incompatible with Christian teaching. It also broadened the description of marriage as a sacred, lifelong covenant to include two adult persons of consenting age as well as an adult man and adult woman of consenting age. These were changes to the denomination's stated social teachings, reported as part of the wider revision.
Removing Restrictive Language
The assembly ended the ban on the ordination of gay clergy. On its final day, delegates also removed the ban on clergy officiating at, and churches hosting, same-sex unions by a vote of 447 to 233. A separate vote of 479 to 203 protected clergy conscience. As UM News reports on the wedding legislation, clergy may not be required or compelled to perform a marriage, union, or blessing, or prohibited from performing one, and retain the right to exercise their conscience.
Reactions were mixed. UM News reported that some United Methodists welcomed the changes as an expression of Jesus' teaching about how to treat others. Others opposed them on biblical grounds, while still others questioned what they would mean for the denomination's future. The report also noted that the Judicial Council held that church boards of trustees could still set policies banning same-sex weddings within their buildings.
An End to Disaffiliation
By a vote of 516 to 203, delegates deleted the disaffiliation policy adopted by the special General Conference in 2019. More than 7,600 U.S. churches had left under that policy before it expired. The policy had allowed congregations to leave with property for reasons of conscience related to homosexuality, subject to financial and procedural obligations. In the same session, delegates approved a reaffiliation policy by 629 to 96, requiring annual conferences to establish a policy for churches wishing to return. UM News explains the disaffiliation and reaffiliation votes.
Worldwide Regionalization
On Nov. 5, 2025, the Council of Bishops announced that Worldwide Regionalization had been ratified. Annual-conference voters supported it by 34,148 to 3,124, a 91.6 percent majority. Constitutional amendments require at least two-thirds support first at General Conference and then in the total vote of lay and clergy members at annual conferences worldwide. Under the restructuring, the United States and eight central conferences in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines each become regional conferences with the same authority to adapt parts of the Book of Discipline, the denomination's policy book.
That authority includes publishing regional hymnals and books of worship and developing practices for marriage ceremonies, funerals, and other rites within national laws. UM News's regionalization report says that decisions about same-sex marriage and the ordination of openly gay clergy will rest with individual regions. It also reports that central conferences in Africa and the Philippines have opted to maintain their bans.
What Holds the Connection Together
Regional authority has defined limits. The Constitution, Doctrinal Standards and Our Theological Task, The Ministry of All Christians, and the Social Principles are not adaptable by regional conferences. General Conference retains full legislative power over matters that are shared across the connection and are not subject to regional adaptation. It can also determine what is non-adaptable by a 60 percent vote. The structure therefore provides both regional discretion and standards held across the denomination.
Looking Toward 2028
In its April 2026 report on planning for the next General Conference, UM News said organizers had shortened the assembly by two days. The gathering is scheduled for May 8-16, 2028, with Minneapolis as the main host city. The report also noted that delegate elections were beginning in annual conferences around the world. That assembly will be another meeting of the denomination's shared lawmaking body within the structure described above.