A Statement on Equitable Representation and the Future of the Worldwide United Methodist Church:
Issued by Concerned Clergy, Laity, and Emerging Leaders of the African Annual Conferences. Prepared by Rev. Dr. Kennedy Mukwindidza.
We, the clergy, laity, and young adults of the African Annual Conferences, offer our prayers for the Council of Bishops as they guide our global connection. We appreciate the steps taken by church leadership to navigate complex logistical and international challenges. However, we must speak with an urgent, prophetic clarity regarding the critical structural barriers that threaten the global equity of our denomination.
The extensive visa denials and systemic processing bottlenecks that recently prevented our brothers and sisters from reaching Calgary—compounded heavily by blanket travel suspensions affecting the Democratic Republic of Congo (home to five episcopal areas and the second-largest concentration of United Methodists globally)—cannot be treated as isolated incidents. Instead, they serve as a stark warning. The upcoming 2028 General Conference in Minneapolis, Minnesota threatens to amplify this exclusion on a catastrophic scale. Given the historic backlog and restrictive nature of U.S. consular operations in our regions, we face a reality where a vast portion of African delegates will likely be barred from entering the United States.
For the first time in our history, the 2028 General Conference will see a majority of delegate seats filled by persons living outside of the United States, with Africa standing as the fastest-growing region in the worldwide connection. To move forward with top-down, Western-centric legislative proposals while African benches sit empty in Minneapolis would undermine the global legitimacy, integrity, and sacred polity of our covenant. We cannot allow structural visa borders to silence the Holy Spirit speaking through the global majority.
To ensure our connectional covenant is not broken, we demand the immediate implementation of the following administrative and strategic directives:
| Strategic Pillar | Connectional & Prophetic Mandate | Administrative Execution |
| Comprehensive Pre-Conference Survey | Grassroots African wisdom must shape the legislative baseline of the church before any votes occur on the floor in Minneapolis. | Execute the African Congregation Survey by late 2027: Launch a fully funded, localized survey translated into major regional languages (including French, Portuguese, Kiswahili, and Lingala) to document grassroots theological perspectives and positions on regionalization. |
| African Regional Gathering | The global church cannot rely on a system that strands its fastest-growing continent at international borders. | Convene a Parallel Continent-Wide Assembly: Organize a formal, official gathering on the African continent prior to May 2028 to synthesize the region’s legislative mandate and officially input it into the General Conference docket. |
| Protected Legislative Integration | Policy must never be advanced under the pretense of global consensus if delegates are missing due to administrative barriers. | Mandate Proxy Voting and Verifiable Inputs: Formally incorporate the pre-conference survey results and African Regional Gathering resolutions into the official legislative materials as binding, non-negotiable text. |
| Future Meeting Protocols | God’s global connection must no longer be tethered to nations with restrictive and inhospitable immigration structures. | Relocate All Post-2028 Global Meetings: Establish a strict, mandatory policy requiring all future global leadership gatherings and General Conferences to be hosted in nations that offer equitable and accessible visa pathways for all global United Methodists. |
If one member suffers, all parts suffer with it (1 Corinthians 12:26). We call upon the General Church and the Commission on the General Conference to act swiftly, acknowledging that a General Conference without its fastest-growing region is not a truly global conference. We stand ready to co-author this path forward, ensuring every voice in our connection has an equal seat at the table.
Prepared by:
Rev. Dr. Kennedy Farai Mukwindidza.
President of Theological Voice of Africa.
