Fill out the form below to add your name to this petition,
 if you have a pension or retirement fund with
Wespath Benefits and Investments. 

See the divestment resolution adopted at General Conference here
(https://www.kairosresponse.org/wespath_petition_2025.html)

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A Call to Fulfill the Divestment Resolution of the United Methodist General Conference of 2024: “Excluding Government Debt of Countries Involved in Prolonged Occupations”

A petition to Wespath by United Methodist clergy and lay employees 

To the Board of Directors and Staff of Wespath Benefits and Investments:

As United Methodist clergy and lay employees of the church, we urge you to swiftly implement the divestment resolution adopted at General Conference 2024: Excluding Government Debt of Countries Involved in Prolonged Occupations.

In this resolution, the first such divestment decision by a major Christian denomination, The United Methodist Church has called on all United Methodists, including church investment managers, to exclude from their investments the government debt of three countries – Israel, Turkey, and Morocco – that are holding subject populations under prolonged military occupation, "until the time when each government ends their military occupation.”

The resolution makes clear the church’s intention to avoid profiting from the suffering and oppression caused by these decades-long occupations: Israel’s occupation of the West Bank including East Jerusalem and the Gaza Strip since 1967, Turkey’s occupation of Northern Cyprus since 1974, and Morocco’s occupation of Western Sahara since 1976.

The United Nations has identified flagrant human rights violations in all of these occupations, including: land confiscation, theft of natural resources, home demolitions and illegal colonization, deprivation of food and water, violence against civilians, mass incarceration for population control, and brutality against children.

We believe there is an urgent need for Wespath’s Board of Directors and staff to honor this General Conference resolution at a time when we see human rights violations on the rise and causing so much suffering in these occupied territories.

Therefore, we are calling on Wespath to act promptly in applying this decision of the United Methodist Church to our denomination’s primary investment portfolio.

We look forward to your prayerful and timely consideration and fulfillment of this resolution. 

To sign this petition, if you have a pension or retirement fund with Wespath, scroll down to the form below,

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ADVANCE SIGNERS OF THE PETITION
Bishop David Bard
Bishop Ciriaco Francisco, retired
   Chairperson, Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters
   President, College of Bishops, Philippines Central Conference
Bishop Robert Hoshibata, retired
   Board of Trustees, Claremont School of Theology
Bishop Peggy Johnson, retired
Dr. Jeffrey Kuan
   President Emeritus, Claremont School of Theology
Bishop Ernest Lyght, retired
Bishop Joel Martinez, retired
Bishop Jane Allen Middleton, retired
Bishop Neil Irons, retired
Rev. Dr. Connie Semy P. Mella
   Executive Director, LEAD Hub–Philippines and Southeast Asia, GBHEM
Colleen Moore
   Director of Peace with Justice, GBCS
Mary Elizabeth Moore
   Dean Emerita of the School of Theology, Boston University
Bishop Sandra K. Olewine
   Resident Bishop, California-Nevada Annual Conference
Bishop Bruce Ough, retired
   Board of Trustees, United Methodist Higher Education Foundation
Bishop Israel Maestrado Painit
   Resident Bishop, Davao Episcopal Area, Philippines
Rev. Dr. Lizette Tapia Raquel
   Academic Dean, Union Theological Seminary, Philippines
Bishop Ann Brookshire Sherer-Simpson, retired
Bishop Kristin Stoneking
   Resident Bishop, Mountain Sky Annual Conference
Bishop Julius C. Trimble
   General Secretary, General Board of Church and Society
Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, retired
   Council of Bishops Co-Ecumenical Officer
David Wildman
   Executive Director for Human Rights and Racial Justice, GBGM
Bishop Rosemarie Wenner, retired
   Council of Bishops Co-Ecumenical Officer

Join these signers by filling out the form below, if you have a pension or retirement fund with Wespath.