Resolutions
Resolution 2018-01
A Call to Discuss Gun Violence to Protect Life
This resolution calls for the Conference to affirm the sacredness of life; to prayerfully examine, publicly discuss, and participate in identifying and promoting realistic options to stop gun proliferation and the resulting destruction in our society; and to remain in conversation and communion with each other, committed to pursue serious, significant, effective, and swift interventions to stop death from “our golden calf” mindful that we not become as “Jacob’s people” in Isaiah’s prophecy (2:6-11).
Submitted by: East Ohio Board of Church and Society, East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was approved.
Resolution 2018-02
Toward Racial Reconciliation
This resolution calls for the Conference to actively seek racial reconciliation by examining our hearts, minds, and souls as to whether we have been silent or complicit in resisting racial reconciliation; to commit to prayerfully examining our private attitudes, personal action or inaction, and communal practices that may have permitted, and sustained, often unrecognized or invisible privileges of being white, and thus contributing to injustice; to promote and participate as individuals, congregations, and/or in study groups to read, consider, discuss, and discern privately, and/or publicly, the ways in which racism and racial discrimination have impacted equal and full access to community resources and respect for ALL people, especially Black Americans, in the U.S. today, humbly praying for God’s guidance to help us do our part to eliminate uneven or discriminatory practices and attitudes that demean or devalue any of God’s children due to race-specific biases, blindness, or ignorance.
Submitted by: East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, East Ohio Reconciling Ministries Network, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was approved.
Resolution 2018-03
Addressing Federal Legislation on Israeli Detention of Children
This resolution calls for the Conference to call on all United Methodist boards and agencies to conduct a critical review of any investments that contribute to the suffering and abuse of Palestinian children; to charge the EOC Board of Church and Society with considering how the Conference should best respond to the issue of child incarceration, including 1) how best to educate United Methodists, 2) whether and how to interact with lawmakers about proposed legislation, and 3) whether the Conference should disassociate financially from entities at home or abroad that profit from child imprisonment; to bring to the 2019 East Ohio Annual Conference for review and/or action the considerations and any recommendations of the Conference’s Board of Church and Society including any recommendations that should be directed to the General Conference of The United Methodist Church in 2020.
Submitted by: East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was not approved.
Resolution 2018-04
Advocating for the Rights of Children Living Under Israeli Occupation
This resolution calls for the Conference to call on the government of the United States to adhere to its own established law – in this case, the U.S. Foreign Assistance Act – by withholding military assistance from the State of Israel due to its practices of arrest and detention of Palestinian children; to call on the United States Senate to join with 196 other nations in ratifying the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child so as to bring stronger international pressure to bear on Israel to comply with the Convention’s provisions, particulary those governing the treatment of children held in detention; to strongly encourage members of the 2018 East Ohio Annual Conference to take action by 1) relaying these two calls to their congregations, 2) writing their members of Congress, as well as the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State, urging them to respond to our calls, and 3) encouraging and facilitating their congregations to do the same.
Submitted by: East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was not approved.
Resolution 2018-05
Child Incarceration, The United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child, and UMW Priorities
This resolution calls for the Conference to strongly encourage endorsing the application of the United Nations Convention on the Rights of the Child as it relates to incarcerated children; to charge the EOC Board of Church and Society along with representatives of the United Methodist Women, with considering how the Conference should best respond to the issue of child incarceration, including 1) how best to educate United Methodists, and 2) whether and how to interact with lawmakers about proposed legislation; to bring to the 2019 Annual Conference for review and/or action the considerations and any recommendations of the Conference Board of Church and Society and representatives of the United Methodist Women, including any recommendations that should be directed to the General Conference of The United Methodist Church in 2020.
Submitted by: East Ohio Board of Church and Society, East Ohio United Methodist Women, East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was not approved.
Resolution 2018-06
Consider Investing in Wespath’s “Social Values Choice” Suite of Funds
This resolution calls for the Conference and its clergy and lay employee participants to consider the Social Values Choice suite of funds for the portion of their accounts invested in equities and fixed income funds.
Submitted by: East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was not approved.
Resolution 2018-07
Protecting the Rights to Peacefully Address Injustice Through Boycotts, Divestment and Sanctions
This resolution calls for the Conference to oppose any state or federal legislation that seeks to redirect the right to address injustice through boycotts, divestment and sanctions; to ask the Conference Secretary to write a letter to the President of the United States and to the Governor of Ohio, the Ohio Congressional representatives and the members of the legislature of Ohio, informing those elected officials of this resolution and attaching the full text of the resolution, said letter to include the approximate number of congregations and church members within the East Ohio Conference; to urge all United Methodist annual conferences, congregations, and church members to contact their local, regional, and national elected officials, to communicate this resolution and to advocate against anti-BDS legislation.
Submitted by: East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was approved.
Resolution 2018-08
Reflectively Read and Prayerfully Study the Social Principles of The United Methodist Church
This resolution calls for encouraging Conference members to read, study, and discuss the Social Principles as contemporary personal and communal aspirations for God’s kingdom to reign on earth as in heaven; to have a responsibility in covenant with God and one another to examine the Social Principles as goals for mutual abundance in Christian living in full connection with our brothers and sisters.
Submitted by: East Ohio Board of Church and Society
The motion was approved.
Resolution 2018-09
Guidelines for General Conference Delegation Re: 2019 GC
This resolution calls for the biblically-based values of Grace, Dignity, Justice, Relationship, and Solidarity (with the oppressed) to guide the East Ohio Conference delegation’s work preceding and during the 2019 Special Session of General Conference; that the East Ohio Conference desires for its delegation to work toward a resolution at General Conference that would end all forms of discrimination against LGBTQIA+ persons. In pursuing this end, the Conference delegation should work to uphold the grace and dignity of all involved, to work toward preserving relationships to the greatest extent possible while standing in solidarity with all who are oppressed, and to resist schism.
Submitted by: East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Reconciling Ministries Network
A motion was made by the submitters of Resolution 2018-09 to withdraw it. The motion to withdraw was approved.
Resolution 2018-10
Educate and Inform the Conference Concerning Mass Incarceration
This resolution calls for the Conference to charge its Board of Church and Society with how the Conference should best respond to the issue of mass incarceration, including 1) how to best educate United Methodists, and 2) whether and how to interact with lawmakers about proposed legislation; to bring to the 2019 Annual Conference for review and/or action the considerations and any recommendations, of the Conference Board of Church and Society, including any recommendations should be directed to the General Conference of The United Methodist Church in 2020.
Submitted by: East Ohio Board of Church and Society
Co-sponsored by: East Ohio Methodist Federation for Social Action, and East Ohio Black Methodists for Church Renewal
The motion was approved.
Resolution 2018-11
This resolution calls for the Conference to discuss improved school safety.
Submitted by: East Ohio CCYM
The motion was approved.
