Rev. Paul Mitchell, co-chair of the Pacific Northwest Commission on Environmental Stewardship addresses the conference body at the PNW annual conference in June 25. Joining him in making the report is co-chair Sophia Agtarap, and Co-Caretakers of God’s Creation Coordinators Rev. Laura Baumgartner and Rev. Jackie Celin. Photo by Patrick Scriven, PNW Communications Team, all rights reserved. Used with permission.
Evidence of tremendous and joyful discipleship keeps rising in the Western Jurisdiction. As of the end of the 2025 annual conference season, almost all Western Jurisdiction annual conferences have taken steps to fully divest from fossil fuels.
The California-Nevada, California-Pacific, Pacific Northwest, Oregon-Idaho, and Desert Southwest Conferences all have now passed legislation that acts on calls for divestment in their conferences and the denomination. Legislation addresses divestment in annual conferences, UMC Foundations, and local churches. There is even divestment legislation that requests that Wespath and its board prayerfully consider divesting its own agency funds from fossil fuels.
Members of the California-Nevada Conference Creation Justice Task Force gather over a meal to discuss and celebrate the work of divestment, and Fossil Free UMC, in the conference. Photo by Rev. Sharon Delgado. Used with permission.
The divestment effort gained wide traction in the denomination with early Fossil Free UMC efforts in 2015. As a result of resolutions in 2016 to divest conferences and local churches, Wespath created the fossil free Social Values investment funds. Since then, Executive Directors of United Methodist Foundations in the Western Jurisdiction, in all conferences but one, have already, or are in the process of, establishing Social Values funds in their own portfolios. Clergy and staff in the UMC seeking to divest can now do so directly through Wespath.
The United Methodist Faith Foundation Northwest, which serves three annual conferences, was the first conference to establish divested funds for their customers. The response to the availability of these funds has been so positive, with so many local churches choosing divestment, that the fossil free Social Values funds at the Faith Foundation are now the dominant choice for their investors.
The Pacific Northwest (PNW) has been one of the early adopters of both divestment legislation and Social Values action. The divestment legislation the PNW has brought to the floor of conferences has been overwhelmingly supported, passing with over 90% approval rates. PNW legislation this year affirmed the work of the 2024 General Conference in addressing creation care, net-zero, green teams, and so much more, and also passed a resolution directly seeking full denominational divestment, and called on the conference treasurer’s office to:
…send a letter by August 1, 2025 to each member of Wespath’s board of directors, Andrew Hendren, the Executive Director of Wespath, and cc Moses Kumar, the General Secretary of the General Council on Finance and Administration. This letter shall express gratitude for the exemplary performance of Wespath’s fossil free funds in which our Annual Conference has been invested since 2017….Further…that any proposal for changes to Paragraph 717 should add fossil fuels as an excluded investment [and] that the Wespath Board should prayerfully consider and vote on the divestment of Wespath’s own unrestricted and restricted assets from fossil fuels.
Rev. Drew Hogan, a member of the PNW Commission on Environmental Stewardship, was one of its members to urge the body to pass this resolution.
“These petitions that we brought forth were impactful to me because they represented our values and priorities as a conference and as a denomination, but also because they underscore the actions and responses we must live out as followers of a practical social gospel that is truly working for the transformation of the world.” Rev. Hogan said. “I’m grateful that these legislative pieces allowed us to teach about the work of the body through a platform that asked us to hold and participate in this work together.”
In the California-Nevada Conference, divestment resolution followed a Divestment Summit held at the annual conference Sacramento office last year. The success of the divestment summit carried over to a successful resolution for divestment in June.
For the California-Pacific Conference, legislation this year follows the devastation of the 2025 January fires in Los Angeles. The conference was active in sharing news of the fire, while local churches and church members provided shelter for those affected and organized relief. Legislation to divest submitted to the 2025 annual conference was accepted as a late legislative addition on the floor of the conference, and received overwhelming support.
The January Fires in Los Angeles burned 90 square miles, destroying nearly 20,000 homes and structures including churches. Community United Methodist in Pacific Palisades, pictured here, burned within days of the start of the fire, and 80% of the congregation lost their homes. Photo from CAL_FIRE_official CC BY-NC 2.0
For the Desert Southwest, divestment was also a multi-year effort. The legislation, brought by the conference’s Earth Care Task Force, co-chaired by Wendy Kreider and Rev. Jeanne Festa, passed in June. The petition opens with scripture and declares “The devastating effects of climate change are ever increasing, and we must act now to protect God’s Creation,” and includes the resolution:
Resolved that by September 1, 2025, the Desert Southwest Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church shall not knowingly make investments in any company or entity whose core business activity involves the production of coal, petroleum, or natural gas.
The Earth Care Task Force of the Desert Southwest Conference formed several years ago out of an active Church and Society Committee. In responding to the interagency call to achieve net zero, the conference passed a net-zero resolution in 2023, then missed a divestment vote by only 10 votes the following year.
Says Rev. Festa, this last year “we worked to better inform pastors and church members in our annual Conference about the Fossil Free movement, and what we hoped it would accomplish” adding that their resolution “passed by a healthy majority in the Desert Southwest Annual Conference in June, 2025.”
“Our future work will include following up with our pastors and churches on their progress in creating creation care ministries and sustainable facilities and practices,” says Rev. Festa. “We are very grateful for the help of the Fossil Free UMC, UMCJM, the Movement Cafe and other United Methodist resources for their leadership in our work.”
The remaining two Western Jurisdiction conferences are also active in creation care efforts. The Mountain Sky Conference and Alaska Conference continue efforts to address creation care, including in prayer and worship, advocacy, energy efficiency, green team formation, resilience, and relief.
The Rev. Richenda Fairhurst is here for the friendship and conversations about climate, community, and connection. For more conversations, see the team at the United Methodist Creation Justice Movement Café. Find Richenda in Southern Oregon and at JustCreation.org.