Greetings from the Inland District! Fall is my favorite season—and we enjoyed a lovely day at our September 20^th Annual District Gathering. Thirty women from all over our District gathered at Spokane Valley UMC for a day of business, remembrance, worship, education, and leadership development. Julia Peterson, of the conservation organization Evergreen Foundation, spoke about being “the Stewards of Creation—the role of the feminine voice in climate awareness and beyond.” We enjoyed yummy breads brought by our leadership team and a wonderful lunch made by the ladies of the Spokane Valley Unit. We lovingly celebrated the lives of 17 of our sisters who passed in the preceding year, and thanked our two departing IMD officers, Patsy Charlton and Charlene Mullis. Impressively, we had a brand new IMD member, Nanette Zorn, volunteer to become our new Social Action Chair at the meeting!

We had eight units participating in our reading program this year—with 59 readers reading 428 books! Our District has elected to continue with the Mission Today program, where each unit meets certain requirements to become a gold or silver star unit (6 units participated), and units are also awarded 5-star or 5-star+2 status based on their participation in giving via the five channels of giving for United Women in Faith. We had one 5-star unit (Clarkston) and four 5-star plus two units (Bonners Ferry, Community/CDA, Rockford, Spokane Valley). Additionally, we had nine units complete the requirements to become members of the charter for Racial Justice. In total (as of 9/2/25), we have disbursed $15,725.31 toward our pledge to the mission goal of $20,000.

In other exciting news, the congregations of Lewiston Orchards, Lewiston, Clarkston, and Asotin have combined to form the New Connections UMC! There is now a new United Women in Faith unit formed (from Lewiston, Clarkston, and Lewiston Orchards), and Asotin will remain its own unit for now. Remember that units do not have to be attached to a church and can meet anywhere they like. There can be power in combining the strengths of several smaller units—imagine how exponentially effective this new unit will be in spreading love, faith, and support to each other as well as to their community. Though we are going from 12 Inland Missional District units to 10, I have faith that this merger will be fruitful for our United Women in Faith mission. Some of our units have been meeting together for programming while maintaining their individual financial structures. Our 2026 Annual Gathering for the Inland Missional District is already being planned. We will include a wonderful Mini Soul Care retreat in the afternoon! Date and location to be determined.

Finally, nine of us from the Inland Missional District went to Bothell, WA, for an enriching PNW Conference Annual Gathering, October 17—18. We had a great time and an engaging conversation with our own UMC Bishop Cedric Bridgeforth and United Women in Faith National President Jana Jones! The bishop challenged us to stop trying to get young people to “come to us” and start “going out to them” where they are doing mission work that matters. Jana joined a panel featuring United Women in Faith PNW conference’s new social action chair, Cecille Corsillis-Sy, and her daughter, Nika, to discuss United Women in Faith as it heads into the future of mission work. It was great to see many of you, and I hope to see even more next year. Thanks to Stell Wallace and her team for putting on a fabulous United Women in Faith PNW event.

I hope you all have a wonderful Fall and a blessed Christmas!

Robin Gregory,
Inland Missional District President