United Women in Faith observed International Women’s Day during a weekend of meetings at Scarritt Bennett Center in Nashville that included an announcement of Assembly 2026 and a strong call to eliminate institutional racism.
Your support of the World Service Fund apportionment supports program-related general agencies, which are especially important to the common vision, mission, and ministry of The United Methodist Church.
Sally Vonner, the top executive of United Women in Faith, called the meeting location “the place of our legacy.”
Owned by United Women in Faith, the 100-year-old campus is formerly home to United Methodist-related Scarritt College for Christian Workers and Scarritt Graduate College. The college became a leader for racial integration in the South when it desegregated its student population in 1952.
Participants celebrated a marketing kickoff for Assembly 2026 with the theme “Dream it! Believe it! Do it!”
Assembly 2026 is scheduled for May 15-17, 2026, in Indianapolis.
This March meeting marked the first in-person board and program advisory group meetings of the United Methodist women’s organization since early 2020. United Women in Faith is governed by a 25-member board of directors. Every U.S. conference is represented in its 60-person program advisory group. The directors and advisory group members serve four-year terms.
Author and activist Garlinda Burton, an advisory group member and deaconess in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference with more than 40 years of work in denominational and justice ministries, called on United Women in Faith members to act for justice now. During an Eliminating Institutional Racism address, Burton said she is retiring and “moving on to other Jesus work.”
“This will be the last time that I will be presenting anything on racism for United Women in Faith, and I’ll tell you why: The time for talking has passed. The time to act is now. And I’m specifically speaking to my white sisters,” Burton said.
“But to all of us, what are we willing to do in this fraught and dangerous time?” she asked. “I believe that United Women in Faith can make a difference because we’ve been making a difference for 241 years. Before there was even a United Women in Faith, there were Methodist and United Methodist and [Evangelical United Brethren] women who were shaking up the system.”
Burton reminded participants that racism is a rejection of the teachings of Jesus Christ and that institutional racism and the struggle for racial justice are parts of the Methodist movement’s legacy.
Devotion moments and plenary sessions throughout the weekend continued themes of standing up for social, racial and climate justice and sharing the story of faith, using Psalm 78:4 and Joel 1:3 to encourage members to continue telling stories of God’s goodness and their own stories to future generations.
excerpt from a story by Audrey Stanton-Smith, editor of United Women in Faith’s response magazine.
The World Service Fund provides basic financial support to program-related general agencies, which are especially important to the common vision, mission, and ministry of The United Methodist Church. Through World Service funding, agencies support annual conferences and local congregations in living out God’s mission for the worldwide Church. General agencies also provide essential services and ministries beyond the scope of individual local congregations and annual conferences through services and ministries that are highly focused, flexible, and capable of rapid response.
