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May/June response: Responsively Yours
Working Toward the Vision
by Sally Vonner
General Secretary and CEO
United Women in Faith
Photo: Janet Joyner
Greetings in faith, hope, and love! These months are filled with so many celebrations—Assembly, Mother’s and Father’s Day, graduations, preparation for Annual Conference, and Mission u gatherings across our United Methodist Church connection. I’m looking expectantly to connect with many of you in Indianapolis for Assembly 2026, “Dream it! Believe it! Do it!” We are going to have a glorious time of worship, fellowship, and learning together. If you are unable to join us, we will make available recordings and photos to share in the future. Continue praying for everyone’s safe travels.
At the recent program advisory group and board of directors’ meetings we reignited excitement and commitment to achieving our vision for this quadrennium: 1) growing our membership to 500,000+ members; 2) increasing our annual revenue to $10+ million; and 3) meeting and exceeding our $60 million Legacy Endowment Fund goal.
Together we have made significant progress toward this vision with great intentionality. We did a soft launch, last year, of the Unstoppable membership growth campaign in which every member has a role to play. The full launch will be at Assembly. Please stay tuned for how you can be part of the Unstoppable movement.
We also exceeded the amount we pledged to give in 2025, ending at 101.5 percent, and we are closer to achieving the Legacy Endowment goal, with less than $6 million to go. I hope you are as confident as I am that we will achieve the vision by 2029. We have dreamed, and now we are believing and working together to do it!
Our intentionality must continue, perhaps even raising the bar in our respective contexts, believing that all things are possible with God when we put our faith, hope, and love in action.
In my report to the PAG I shared that my 2026 goals are grounded in Jesus’ words in John 15:5, “I am the vine; you are the branches. Those who abide in me and I in them bear much fruit, because apart from me you can do nothing.”
United Women in Faith now celebrates 157 years in mission as branches of faith, hope, and love companioning and supporting women, children, and youth around the world.
I am blessed when I visit National Mission Institutions, to see how for generations we have stayed true to this mission. My most recent visits were to two in San Francisco, Gum Moon and Mary Elizabeth Inn, both of which offer residences and services for women. Another, in Greensboro, North Carolina, Bennett College, celebrated its centennial with the Western North Carolina United Women in Faith hosting an amazing program. Each of these institutions celebrates 100 or more years of ministry to women, children, and/or families in their respective communities—evidence that we have abided in Jesus, connecting, branching out to serve others, and thus bearing much fruit.
Together, as we continue to work toward the vision, we are addressing the present moment and the future. May our branches, strengthened by a 157-year legacy and vision, nourish new branches to grow in faith, hope, and love in action for generations to come.
God is with us cheering us on, as are all who came before us. May it be so!
SALLY VONNER
General Secretary and CEO
United Women in Faith
