A year ago, we experienced times of refreshing as several hundred pastors and lay leaders from churches in our movement came together for Regional Gatherings. Rich times of worship, learning, fellowship, prayer, and shared meals were used by the Spirit of God to reunite us. We focused on reclaiming our identity under the Lordship of Jesus. Participant surveys after each gathering revealed a common theme of hope. As a movement, we began to anticipate the new thing God is doing among us.  

Our 2026 theme is Unleashing Holy Freedom: A Gospel Opportunity in an Age of Authenticity. Does this intrigue you? Let me offer you an appetizer here, but you’ll have to come to a Regional Gathering to get the whole feast.   

In a secular age marked by wounded trust in Christian witness and a pursuit of shallow freedom, we believe God is calling His Church to embody a deeper freedom—one initiated by the Spirit and shaped by authentic submission to Christ, prayer, and worship, in which our lives and communities are formed by contagious love. Research shows that a growing number of people in our Canadian context—led by Gen Z—are hungering for something more than the post-Christian era has offered them. This hunger is a stirring from the Holy Spirit, and God invites us to spread the table and welcome his “cherished missing” to the feast.  

We believe the Wesleyan Way providentially positions us to live into this “holy freedom.” Our churches can see people liberated from all kinds of bondage. Whether they are captive to “the sin that so easily entangles” or enslaved by legalistic understandings of the Christian life, freedom is possible. God’s Word offers hope for deliverance from either kind of prison. Jesus’ inaugural address heralded his mission as “setting the captives free.”  

Bring it on, Jesus! Unleash your Holy Freedom among us!