Women Taking the Lead

Leadership development is a pillar of United Methodist Women, equipping women and girls around the world to be leaders in communities, agencies, workplaces, governments and churches.In February 2020 United Methodist Women invited organization leaders and women General and Jurisdictional Conference delegates to St. Louis for its annual Leadership Development Days. The time together focused on raising awareness of oppression and privilege as women leaders within the church and working together to dismantle both, beginning with General Conference, then scheduled to meet in May 2020.The United Methodist General Conference, the top policymaking body for the denomination, rescheduled because of the COVID-19 global health crisis, will take place sometime in 2021. There, 862 delegates from around the world will set denominational policy, revise church law, approve budgets for churchwide programs and adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. This will be followed by Jurisdictional Conferences, where the five jurisdictions in the United States traditionally assign and elect bishops and boards of directors of agencies of the church.“We are committed to developing women leaders in The United Methodist Church,” said Mollie James-Vickery, director of mobilization and advocacy for United Methodist Women. “Our members are leaders across the church and their communities. We have worked hard this year to encourage women to run for leadership, to make their voices heard and to carry the purpose of United Methodist Women with them.”- - -This episode originally appeared in the March/April 2020 issue of response, the award winning magazine from United Methodist Women.Visit www.UnitedMethodistWomen.org to find out more.