The body at the 33rd Dakotas Annual Conference considered several items of business. Photos by jlynn studios.

Voting members of the 33rd Session of the Dakotas Annual Conference affirmed all the legislation before them, including the 2027 Budget Proposal, changes to the Dakotas Conference Structure and Rules, changes to the Clergy Housing Policy, and forming a Sacred Trust and Trauma-Informed Leadership Task Force. View the legislation for the 2026 Annual Conference.

2027 Budget: The 2027 apportioned budget is approximately $2.3 million. This is a decrease of $132,000 from the 2026 apportioned budget of $2.435 million. This continues a multi-year effort to reduce our annual budget request and better align spending with apportionment receipts. This reduction is partially due to lower expenses and the reallocation of existing resources. In the 2027 Budget:

• The church apportionment rate remains at 13.0% of local church operating income for 2027. This rate results in approximately $2.05 million in apportionment receipts. That is slightly higher than the collections for 2025, which totaled $2.01 million. We have seen an uptick in year-to-date giving as of April 30, 2026, compared to the same point in 2025, and we are hopeful that this trend will continue into 2027.
• The 2027 budget shortfall is projected to be $253,000. This budget includes another generous gift from the Board of Pensions. They have approved paying for 100% of our conference health insurancecosts for 2027, an apportionment budget impact of approximately $213,000.
• Budget items related to the developing missional leaders section are reduced by $62,000. These savings result from reallocating existing resources – such as using our ministerial education fund – rather than reducing our investment in these ministries.
• The district superintendency budget decreased by $58,000. This reduction is primarily attributed to cost savings from reducing the number of conference superintendents to three. Although the total cost savings is approximately twice that amount, the 2026 budget had already accounted for approximately half of it.
• A conference task force was created to provide budget, investment, and spending policy guidance as the Dakotas Conference continues to seek ways to close the ongoing budget gap. This task force has developed ideas to increase funding sources, decrease expenses, and reallocate existing resources.

Legislative Items 1.2 and 1.3: The revisions to the Conference structure document found in the 2025 Conference Journal were affirmed. Highlights to note are:
Inclusion of mission and vision in the structure to align the work of conference leadership.

• Committee names that call us back to our Wesleyan-Methodist heritage.
• The merging of the work of the Developing Missional Leaders Link and the Equipping Missional Congregations Link.
• Formation of a Lay Network.
• A leadership table that brings together representatives of different groups that are tasked with stewarding the resources of the annual conference.
• Aligning the work of the Equitable Compensation Commission with the group charged with caring for clergy leadership and the revitalization of congregations.

Rev. Kori Lehrkamp spaeks on Legislative Item 1.5 Sacred Trust and Trauma-Informed Leadership Task Force.

Legislative item 1.4: The body affirmed a new Clergy Housing Policy. The updated policy includes parsonage standards as well as a housing allowance calculation. For 2026, the housing allowance calculation for full-time clergy would be $19,670-$31,471. The new policy also includes the following items: clergy couple policies regarding parsonages and housing allowances, and requiring a charge to retain 25% of a parsonage sale as a future down payment for a parsonage. This retention is required because if a clergy member does not want a housing allowance, the charge must provide a parsonage, rented or purchased.

The affirmed Clergy Housing Policy not only brings us in line with The Book of Discipline but also helps to care for churches and clergy in the appointive system, where housing is secondary to the missional needs of churches. It clarifies the benefits and drawbacks to both parsonages and housing allowances; gives an equitable range of housing allowances for clergy; updates parsonage standards for tight housing markets in many places; and does not require clergy who do not or cannot afford a housing allowance to rent or to purchase a home.

Legislative item 1.5: A Sacred Trust and Trauma-Informed Leadership Task Force will be formed to explore practices, systems, leadership formation, and resources that strengthen trust, accountability, supervision, clergy wellness, restorative care, and healthy ministry environments across the Dakotas Conference. They shall engage in listening, learning, consultation, and discernment related to sacred trust, church harm, trauma-informed leadership, restorative practices, and systems of support within the life of the conference. The Task Force shall be appointed within 90 days of the Annual Conference and shall bring recommendations, resources, and/or proposed actions to the 2027 Dakotas Annual Conference. The Task Force, in collaboration with the Resident Bishop and appropriate conference bodies, shall seek to support the timely integration of identified learnings, needs, and recommendations, including leadership formation, sacred trust training, and trauma-informed ministry practices.

Legislative items that came before the body of the 33rd session were approved by a voice vote. Only one matter, an amendment to Item 1.2, required a visual count by having people stand.

“We have done holy work together,” Bishop Lanette Plambeck told the body at the conclusion of the business of the 2026 Annual Conference.