Methodist Conference 2026

The Methodist Conference will meet in Telford for the Presbyteral Session from 25 to 26 June and for the Representative Session from 27 June to 1 July.

The agenda this year includes marking the first five years of the Church’s Strategy for Justice, Dignity and Solidarity, updates on progress made towards becoming a Net Zero Church and on work around Reparative Justice as well as on ecumenical work, and reports on liturgical style and language, Artificial Intelligence and predominantly online church.

The Election and Induction of the President and Vice-President of the Conference

The President and Vice-President of the Methodist Conference will be elected and inducted during the afternoon of Saturday 27 June. The incoming President , the Revd Mark Slaney, will be handed the Presidential Cross and John Wesley’s Bible and the Vice-President Designate, Mrs Caroline Stead, will be presented with the Vice-Presidential Cross and a first-edition copy of John and Charles Wesley’s Hymns and Sacred Songs.

Ordinations

This year, 13 presbyters and two deacons will be received into Full Connexion during the Conference’s Sunday worship, with ordinations taking place later in the day at Shrewsbury Abbey, All Saints in Wellington and St John’s, Bloxwich. When they are received into Full Connexion, ministers (both presbyters and deacons) enter a covenant relationship with the Conference.

Reparative Justice

As directed by the 2021 British Methodist Conference, in response to the memorial M22 (2021) The Transatlantic Slave Trade, the Methodist Church is undertaking a series of research initiatives and collaborating with Partner Churches in West Africa, the Africa Methodist Council, and the Methodist Church in the Caribbean and the Americas as the Church seeks to listen in deep solidarity, walk alongside and honour those processes that some of our partners have in place to consider these questions.

Later in the week, the Conference will make its annual commitment to the Commitments and Expectations of that covenant relationship.

Conference representatives will take part in a workshop which examines the early findings from research by Dr Clive Norris, an historian of Methodism, and General Secretary and Librarian of the Wesley Historical Society.

Representatives will be presented with three texts that represent the basis for the ‘accepted position’ that the Methodist Church was historically anti-slavery and abolitionist, and contrast that with illustrations of the ways in which it was in fact more entangled and complicit.

Eight stories from Dr Norris’s recent research work and a previously published article will illustrate how the inconsistent views and varied connections to the slave trade, at different levels of society, played out in practice and impacted early Methodism.

The research illustrates how John Wesley’s public stance against the trade in enslaved people through the publication of Thoughts Upon Slavery in 1774 did not stop him or other leading Methodists from associating with and accepting financial support from people intimately linked with slavery.

Both during his lifetime and after his death in 1791, Wesley’s movement was entangled with the trade in enslaved people and the wider transatlantic enslavement economy. At most, Methodists advocated for a cautious movement towards abolition.

Assisted Dying

The Conference will receive an update on the Church’s position on Assisted Dying, which was requested by last year’s Conference. The Methodist Statement on Euthanasia was adopted by the Conference in 1974, expressing its opposition to any steps which would intentionally end a patient’s life.

The report states that the 1974 statement is flawed because of the dated language and terms, and the Conference will be offered ways forward to develop a considered position, including further consultation across the Connexion.

Net Zero

The Conference will receive an update on the Methodist Church’s Action for Hope work and aspiration to become net zero by 2030. Representatives will hear that, although progress has been made across the Connexion, many parts of the Church have struggled to develop a robust strategy to meet the target.

An audit commissioned by the Connexional Council found that the complexity and cost of decarbonising an extensive and often historic property portfolio combined with the lack of a consistent, Connexion‑wide system for measuring carbon emissions, due to the decision not to impose mandatory requirements on churches, circuits and districts, has significantly hindered progress.

The report concludes that without mandatory measurement and a broader emissions scope, the 2030 target is no longer realistically achievable or measurable.

In response, the Connexional Council has concluded with lament that retaining the 2030 target would risk undermining credibility and invite accusations of greenwashing and is therefore recommending its withdrawal.

Instead, it is encouraging the Church to adopt a more flexible, ongoing approach to carbon reduction that prioritises sustained progress over a fixed deadline.

This includes developing tools to support voluntary carbon footprint measurement, encouraging engagement at every level of the Church, and focusing on practical actions such as property reviews, reducing travel emissions and increasing participation in schemes like Eco Church.

Conference will hear that while this represents a step back from a time‑bound ambition, it reflects a more honest and sustainable pathway – one that maintains both inspiration and a sense of urgency while focusing on long‑term carbon reduction.

Predominantly Online Churches

The Conference will receive a report on how it should make provision for predominantly online churches within the Methodist Church.

The report focuses on those communities who wish to become a church and, like any other church, will need to belong to a circuit and to have a presbyter in pastoral charge.

A predominantly online community seeking to be recognised as a Methodist church should be expected, as far as possible, to meet equivalent criteria to an onsite community, with adaptations made only when absolutely necessary.

A prerequisite for the proposals in the report is that the Methodist Church continues to recognise services of Holy Communion that are held online. The Conference will be considering a report on online celebrations of Holy Communion and will be invited to decide on a lasting position on this as the period of discernment comes to an end.

The report considers that baptism and confirmation should still require an appropriate person being physically present, although others may join online.

Training materials for local preachers and worship leaders should include content specifically designed to address online worship. Guidelines for best practice in safeguarding while working online will be published as soon as possible.

Artificial Intelligence Report

The AI working group will be delivering its first report to the Conference considering the theological, ethical and practical issues to assist the Church in understanding how AI will affect its ministry and mission and to offer guidance for the Church’s life. The group included representation from the Faith and Order and Ministries Committees, The Queen’s Foundation, and members from the Connexional Team working in digital communications, IT and governance.

The report contains the findings of a Church-wide survey indicating that people were using AI in preparing sermons and prayers and in administrative communication, while expressing caution regarding pastoral use and raising concerns about authenticity, data protection, governance and the environmental impact.

Responses implicitly reflected convictions about what it means to be human, what constitutes authentic prayer and preaching, and why pastoral care depends upon relationship and responsibility.

The report offers principles intended to assist ministers, office-holders and churches in making responsible and faithful decisions in their own contexts.

On the Way – Triennial Membership Returns 2023–2025

Every three years, the Conference requires a report on the Church’s membership returns. Following the returns of 2020, the Conference agreed a strategy for evangelism and growth, God for All, encouraging each church to discern a growth plan that begins with listening, in order to decide how to focus on what is most important.

An in-depth reading of the 2023–2025 statistical returns reveals some important signs of growth. While membership continues to decline, attendance at churches showed some signs of recovery with significant percentages of Methodist churches experiencing numerical growth.

28% of churches recorded confirmations and/or other gains in 2025.
43% of churches recorded confirmations and/or gains and/or transfers in 2025.
21% of churches recorded overall growth: that is, their growth (from any source) exceeded any decline (from any source).

Principles for Liturgical Style and Language

In 2025, the Conference adopted the proposal to revise The Methodist Worship Book with a rolling programme of replacing and/or revising existing authorised liturgy. This report to be presented to the Conference sets out the principles needed to guide this work.

The Conference will be asked to agree proposals that language is used that seeks to be inclusive and expansive and recognises a variety of traditions, that welcomes a variety of forms of addresses for God (within liturgies as well as between liturgies), and draws on a diversity of sources while doctrinally faithful and true to our Methodist emphases.

The report seeks to offer a positive vision for the language that is to be used in worship and liturgy. Among the principles for liturgical style and language are that they should be hopeful and positive, poetic and inspiring, and should highlight that all people matter to God.

At the same time, language should be rooted within the broad Christian tradition, especially Methodist theological understandings, and easy to understand, inclusive and respectful, especially regarding language that could be regarded as gendered or ableist.

The Methodist Worship Book uses the 1998 ELLC (English Language Liturgical Consultation) texts for shared and ecumenical texts. The report proposes that the ELLC texts be kept but that alternatives be included as well that use a wider range of imagery and language.

Justice, Dignity and Solidarity Committee Report

The Conference will receive a report reviewing the first five years of the Methodist Church’s Strategy for Justice, Dignity and Solidarity (JDS), adopted by the Conference in 2021.

The report details significant developments including the creation of the JDS Committee and Scrutiny Group, publication of an Inclusive Language Guide and the establishment of online resources. Appointing a Director for Inclusion and a JDS Programme Coordinator ensures that inclusion is now central to leadership.

Training has been expanded through Equality, Diversity and Inclusion modules and unconscious bias training. Additional initiatives include piloting the Discrimination and Abuse Response Service (DARS), developing inclusive worship pilots, supporting District EDI Officers and forming Solidarity Circles.

Independent reviews by the Susanna Wesley Foundation (2023–2025) show widespread support for the strategy but suggest that more work be undertaken to engage with circuits and local churches. Key obstacles include limited capacity, overstretched ministers and volunteers, communication gaps and entrenched leadership patterns.

Priorities for the next five years include providing practical tools for local churches, deepening theological grounding, strengthening accountability, improving awareness of the Discrimination and Abuse Response Service (DARS) and embedding storytelling and celebration. The Committee concludes that progress is real but uneven, and that JDS must function not as a programme but as a core expression of discipleship and communal life.

Life in Covenant: Continuing the Work Together of the Church of England and the Methodist Church of England

The report to the Conference reviews the progress and future direction of the Life in Covenant Group, established jointly by the Methodist Conference and the Church of England to advance the commitments of the Anglican-Methodist Covenant (2003). The Covenant affirms the two churches’ shared apostolic faith and commits them to “removing further obstacles towards full visible unity” and to deepening collaboration in mission and ministry.

A major focus has been the proposals known as Mission and Ministry in Covenant (MMiC), which aim to establish Full Communion between the churches, including interchangeability of presbyteral ministries.

Work is now underway including drafting a formal declaration of communion, liturgies for an inaugural joint service, an ordination rite for a President‑bishop, and guidelines for ministers serving across traditions.

The report acknowledges challenges, including differing developments on marriage and potential Methodist provision for online communion.

The report concludes by recommending renewal of the Life in Covenant Group for a further five years, directing Faith and Order bodies to bring full implementation proposals by 2031.

Methodist-URC Liaison

The Conference will be asked to receive a report highlighting areas of common ground with the United Reformed Church and welcoming a planned meeting of District Chairs and Moderators. The Conference will be asked to direct the formulation of proposals for further collaboration.