Louisiana Now Louisiana Conference

Welcome to another episode of the Louisiana Now podcast. In this episode, we sit down with bishop Delores J. Williamston, bishop of The Louisiana Conference of The United Methodist Church.

The 2024 Annual Conference just wrapped up last week in Baton Rouge, Louisiana. We had a chance to sit down with Bishop Williamston before she left this week for the Arkansas annual conference.

She reflects on so many high moments from the annual conference, from the rollout of her vision to the incredible ordination service at First United Methodist Church of Baton Rouge.
You won't want to miss this episode.

We sit down with Rev. Amy Castro of Westlake United Methodist Church to talk about her incredible journey this week. She was driving home after graduating from seminary at Perkins School of Theology on the campus of SMU and drove straight to tornado damage at her church in southwest Louisiana.
She shares a heartwarming tale of resilience and community support that followed in the moments after the storm. Tune in for an inspiring conversation about faith, hope, and the incredible strength of community bonds in times of crisis.

To hear the episode Todd and Amy discuss in this episode, Praise Him in the Hallway, please click here.

We wrap our coverage from Charlotte, North Carolina. In this final episode, we wanted to share some interviews on the major event that came out of General Conference - Delegates voted to remove restrictive and harmful language from the United Methodist Book of Discipline after more than fifty years of intense, prayerful debate. 
For more on our coverage from General Conference, please click here. 

Our updates from General Conference continue. In this episode, we look back at the start of Week 2 from Charlotte, North Carolina. 
Bishop Delores J. Williamston presided over the morning plenary session and we had a chance to catch up with her afterward. She talks more about what it felt to sit in the chair and what this week looks like. 
 

Todd Rossnagel and Todd Seifert have served together on UMAC (United Methodist Association of Communicators) leadership teams. As you might expect, identifying two Todd's became a challenge on ZOOM, so Todd Rossnagel received the nickname "Cajun Todd" (Louisiana), while Todd Seifert earned the nickname "Plain Todd" (Great Plains).  
In this episode of Louisiana NOW, Rossnagel and Seifert unpack General Conference, discuss what it's like to cover General Conference from a media perspective, and share more about Bishop Delores J. Williamston, who served in the Great Plains Conference before being assigned to the Louisiana Conference. 

UNITED METHODIST NEWS: General Conference has now passed much of the legislation that aims to give The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions equal standing in decision-making.
In what outgoing Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton called “a historic day for our church,” delegates voted 586 to 164 for an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that will now go before annual conference voters for potential ratification.
A constitutional amendment requires at least a two-thirds vote at General Conference; the regionalization amendment received 78% of the vote. To be ratified, the amendment also will need at least a two-thirds total vote of annual conference lay and clergy voters. Annual conferences are church regions consisting of multiple congregations and other ministries.
Regionalization has become United Methodist shorthand for a package of legislation that would restructure the denomination. Under the legislation, the U.S. and each central conference — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines — would become regional conferences with the same authority to adapt the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, for more missional effectiveness.
At present, only central conferences have that authority under the denomination’s constitution to adapt the Discipline as missional needs and different legal contexts require.
To see the story with Rev. Marissa Horvath, please click here.