news article
Monitoring at Annual Conference 2020
October 19, 2020 / By Commission on Religion and Race and Commission on the Status and Role of Women
Annual Conference 2020 was one like no other. Yet it remained vital to have a variety of voices at the table—actually, at computers and phones. Our worldwide United Methodist Church values healthy conversations. To that end, the Commission on Religion and Race, and Commission on the Status and Role of Women monitor who is speaking at Annual Conference in terms of clergy, laity, race, and gender.
The rules and format of this secured livetream created some limitations to monitoring, and some people did not identify themselves, which means that our numbers are estimates. (Click here to view a larger image of the graph pictured to the right.) That said, here's what we learned:
- For clergy, about twice as many males (27) spoke as females (16).
- For laity the number of males (11) and females (13) who spoke were closer to equal.
- White speakers greatly outnumbered People of Color.
- White females spoke 27 times while women of color spoke twice.
- White males spoke 32 times while six men of color spoke.
- Overall totals by race reflected that 59 white people and eight People of Color spoke.
- Clergy session was also monitored but there were no speakers other than presenters (three white male clergy, two white female clergy, one white laity, and two lay People of Color).
- There were four pictures of Jesus -all representing a white man.
The data we collect give us a working scorecard as we pursue our conference-wide goal of becoming a more just and loving expression of God’s kin-dom in which all voices are heard and matter.