The 32^nd session of the Dakotas Annual Conference will be held June 6-8, 2025, in Mitchell, South Dakota. The  gathering will include time for worship, connection, learning, and looking to the future together. Here are some of the details for our time together:

Theme: The theme for this year’s gathering is “Created for Love.” Grounded in 1 John 4:7-21, we will focus on how we are made to love God, others, self and even creation in a very special way.  It will be a reminder of the invitational call we have to incarnate God’s love so that the world might know who God is through us. As United Methodists, we are called to personal and social holiness – a way of being in the world that drives out fear and points to the grace of Jesus Christ.

New Schedule and Location: In order to be more accessible to working lay persons as well as give conference participants the opportunity to worship together on a Sunday, we have shifted our schedule to begin with pre-conference meetings and Clergy Session – Part 1 on Thursday evening, June 5. The full plenary gatherings will be on Friday and Saturday at the Sherman Center on the campus of Dakota Wesleyan University.

On Sunday morning, we will hold the Celebration of Life in Ministry service at Downtown Mitchell First United Methodist Church at 10 a.m. CDT. During this service, we will celebrate the commissioning and ordination of ministry candidates, honor our retiring clergy, remember those clergy and clergy spouse who have passed away during the past year, and recognize those individuals who are receiving their first license for ministry in the UMC and also those licensed local pastors who have completed their theological education.

The service will be livestreamed allowing churches across the conference who might so choose, to join virtually from their own worship spaces. We will also make print and digital materials available prior to annual conference for those churches who worship at different times, have limited technological capabilities, and/or want to align with the theme and celebrate connection in their own format.

**Check out the video below to get a glimpse of our gathering space and a fun welcome from some of our Conference team. 

Bishop's Episcopal Address: Bishop Lanette Plambeck will deliver the 2025 Episcopal Address, during plenary 1, on Friday, June 6.

Missional Report: The 2024-2025 Missional Report will highlight the ways we have been in ministry together and are living out love as we were created to do.

Theologian in Residence: As part of our time together, Rev. Dr. Tim Eberhart, an elder from the Dakotas Conference, will serve as our theologian in residence. Tim currently serves as the Associate Professor of Ecological Theology and Practice and Director of the Center for Ecological Regeneration for Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary. During two of our plenary gathering times, he will provide teaching sessions on our Wesleyan Methodist identity and how that is lived out in this time and space.

Special Recognitions: In addition to honoring these persons in the Celebration of Life in Ministry service, the plenary session on Friday afternoon will also include a time of recognition. Candidates for Ordination and Commissioning will be asked Wesley’s Historic Questions, a practice that unites them with Methodist clergy throughout the generations. During that plenary, those clergy retiring from active service will have an opportunity to address the body in celebration of their ministry and we will honor our Jubilee Clergy. Finally, we will continue the practice we began last year of recognizing those clergy who have passed away in the last year.

Legislation: Voting members will consider legislation put before them during the thirty-second session of the Dakotas Annual Conference including: the 2026 Budget Proposal, a report from the Wisdom Council, the report of the Nominations Committee, Board of Pensions report, resolutions, and petitions. Members will also be voting on the ratification of constitutional amendments passed by the General Conference related to regionalization, church membership, anti-racism, and clergy-delegate voting. Each annual and central conference is voting on these items, and the results will be based on the aggregate of all votes.

While it will not require any voting by the Conference, the Dakotas Board of Pensions and Health Benefits, as well as representatives from Wespath, will share information related to Compass, the new clergy pension program that was passed by the General Conference and will go into effect in 2026.

Miracle Offering: Our 2025 Miracle Offering will soon be announced. We will collectively gather our resources to put our faith into action and make love tangible.  

Pre-Conference materials and webinars: In order to help clergy and lay members of the Annual Conference feel equipped for our time together, we will share information in the coming months through our Mondays @ Dakotas newsletter. Our pre-conference workbook with legislation, nominations, and reports, will be published by May 15. We will have pre-conference Zoom webinars on Tuesday May 27, Thursday May 29, and Sunday June 1 all beginning at 7 p.m. CDT / 6 p.m. MDT.

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Welcome to Mitchell for AC 2025

(Click the image above to play the video)
Registration will open by March 31, 2025.
Hotel blocks are available now so book your rooms today at these hotels and request the Dakotas Conference block rates: