March Movement Café:
General Conference
March 20th 2024
10am PT / 11am MT / 12pm CT / 1pm ET
General Conference
Couldn’t make it? Here’s what happened.
Our March 20th Movement Café featured the movers and shakers of General Conference. We heard from Mittie Quinn who spoke to the many organizations that are part of LYNC including Black Methodists for Church Renewal, Native American International Caucus and Reconciling Ministries network. LYNC has become the essential collaborative organization, bridging the grass roots and institutional issues of faith that call us together as United Methodists and inviting us to a thriving United Methodist movement. We heard also from Neal Christie who is connected across the UMC, including as LYNC co-convener, as well as serving as Executive Director of FIACONA–Federation of Indian American Christian Organizations of North America. He spoke of the Christmas Covenant, and walked us through information on Regionalization and the updated Social Principles.
We heard also from Rev. Nancy Blade and Earthkeeper Kim Richmond as they drew us through the Creation Justice oriented resolutions that will be in front of delegates at General Conference. Nancy Blade offered an overview of different resolutions, including one on plastics, and especially divestment. Fossil Free UMC encourages everyone to be visible with this important work and sign the Call for Divestment. Kim Richmond spoke to the importance of addressing the church yard. Kim Richmond calls us to attend to the everyday church things we sometimes don’t pause to consider, and to take action to make change that makes a sizable difference.
Thank you also to all who participated in the café, who shared questions and offered insights. We hope to see everyone again April 17, when we will again be talking about General Conference. So much is coming together during the final weeks before General Conference begins, that the next Café will offer additional updates on all that will be happening in Charlotte starting April 21.
Introducing this Month’s Speakers
Speaker
Neal Christie
is the co-convener of the Love Your Neighbor Coalition (LYNC), which brings together fifteen national caucuses in the UMC; he is a U.S team member of the Christmas Covenant, serves on the board of the Native American International Caucus (NAIC), and is an active member of the New Federation of Asian American UM (NFAAUM).
Speaker
Kim Richmond
is a UM EarthKeeper. She started the Creation Care Ministry in her home church, Maple Springs UMC, in Winston Salem, and is active in the Western NC Conference Creation Care Ministry, serving currently as the coordinator for that team. She is also a Climate Reality Project Leader and the Advocacy Chairperson for her local Audubon chapter.
Speaker
Mittie Quinn
is a member of Dumbarton United Methodist Church in Washington, D.C. and represents that church at the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference. She is also a lay delegate to Jurisdictional Conference and on the steering committee of Baltimore-Washington Area Reconciling Methodists (BWARM). Dr. Quinn is currently the co-convener of the Love Your Neighbor Coalition, an organization that provides a venue for 15 Social Justice Ministries and Ethnic Caucuses of the UMC to be in dialogue and coordinate and collaborate in their outreach to the World.
Speaker
Rev. Nancy Blade
is a United Methodist Elder serving in rural and town churches in Northern Illinois since 1988. She co-chairs a new Northern Illinois task force focusing on eco-sustainability. Their activity has included resolutions, green summits, hosting Earthkeeper training, coaching local churches, and more recently, net-zero.