Often the structural process that makes organizations work can seem mechanical and distant to real world realities. Every so often, though, there is a convergence of procedure and practice that leaps forward in the form of unquestioned progress. This undoubtedly occurred on Saturday, June 2, 2007 when the Greater New Jersey Conference of The United Methodist Church unanimously voted to become an "'Abolitionist Conference' opposed to all forms of slavery and committed to its elimination from the earth." The 597 churches and 950 clergy of the Greater New Jersey Conference will now explore ways in which they can best raise awareness and act to combat modern slavery; while petitioning the 2008 General Conference of the UMC to amend its Book of Discipline to read: As an Abolitionist Denomination, The United Methodist Church will work with all other religious faiths to have them join in this declaration. We call on all companies, especially retailers, which may benefit from human slavery to certify themselves as "slavery free." We call on all levels of government across the world to outlaw human slavery and to enforce those laws to move toward universal freedom from bondage and to take the profit out of slavery. The Greater New Jersey Annual Conference calls upon its member churches to work to achieve the goal of eliminating human trafficking and slavery from across the Earth. The Not for Sale Campaign recognizes the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference for this step into the history books, and its continued process of uniting procedure and practice to change the world through unfailing progress. *Read the entire resolution by downloading it in the Media Section (United Methodist Abolitionist Resolution).
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