April 1, 2004
Not sure how General Conference works? Here’s GC101

A UMNS Report By J. Richard Peck*

When the United Methodist Church’s top legislative body meets this spring in Pittsburgh, nearly 1,000 delegates from around the world will once again speak to issues of the day and set direction for the denomination.

Convened every four years, the General Conference is the only entity that speaks for the entire 10-million member denomination. The 2004 assembly will meet April 27-May 7 in Pittsburgh.

Understanding how General Conference works can be a challenge, even for people who have attended it in the past.

“General Conference is the legislative body that sets policy for the denomination,” explains Carolyn Marshall of Veedersburg, Ind., longtime secretary of General Conference. “We come together from divergent theological and geographic backgrounds to struggle, pray and work together to discover who we are as United Methodist people of God.”

In an intense, two-week period, 998 delegates from the United States, Europe, Africa and Asia will handle more than 1,600 pieces of legislation. They will also participate in daily worship and take other action related to guiding the church for the 2005-08 period.
Majority votes can change any part of the denomination’s book of law, or Book of Discipline, except the Constitution, the Articles of Religion or Confession of Faith. Restrictive rules in the Constitution also prohibit the conference from eliminating the office of bishop and the right of clergy to trial by committee. Any proposed changes to the Constitution requires a two-thirds majority vote of General Conference and a two-thirds affirmative vote by the aggregate total of voting members of all annual (regional) conferences.

General Conference will take stands on various social-justice issues. The “Social Principles” were first written in 1972, four years after the Methodist Church and the Evangelical United Brethren Church merged to form the United Methodist Church. These principles have been revised at every General Conference since then. The quadrennial assembly will also apply these principles to contemporary social justice issues such as the situation in Iraq, cloning, peace in the Middle East, immigration policies, and censorship. These positions on contemporary social justice issues are later published in the denomination’s Book of Resolutions.

The number of delegates from each annual conference is determined by the number of church members. One hundred eighty-eight of the 998 lay and clergy delegates will come from nations outside the United States. Due to increased membership in African churches, that figure is up 36 from the last assembly, held in 2000 in Cleveland.

A total of 8.3 million United Methodists reside in the United States, and 1.4 million live in Africa, Asia and Europe. Sixteen percent of United Methodists live in Africa, 1 percent in Europe and 2 percent in Southeast Asia, particularly in the Philippines.

Each annual conference sends an equal number of lay and clergy delegates to the legislative assembly.

The location of the quadrennial assembly rotates to cities within the five U.S. jurisdictions or regions. Pittsburgh is in the Northeastern Jurisdiction.

The assembly is expected to cost $5 million, with an estimated $2 million of that covering the travel, meals and lodging of delegates.

Every clergy and lay member of the denomination has the right to petition the conference. However, most petitions are sent to General Conference by local churches, general agencies and annual conferences.

The Commission on General Conference, which planned the 2004 assembly, will suggest that in the future only annual conferences and general agencies be allowed to submit petitions. If that measure is approved by the conference, individuals and churches would have to have their proposals approved by a general agency or an annual conference in order to be considered by General Conference.

At General Conference, petitions are first considered by one of 11 legislative committees that may vote concurrence, non-concurrence or concurrence as amended. Most of the first week is spent considering proposals in committees. During the second week, the entire gathering considers legislation proposed by the committees. A proposal coming from a committee is called a “calendar item.”

To expedite the process, legislative committee calendar items with fewer than five negative votes are placed on a “consent calendar.” If an item is not removed by a written request of five delegates, and if it does not involve funding or a Constitutional amendment, the entire consent calendar is approved with a single vote. General Conference may change the specific rules related to the consent calendar, but the process enables the assembly to quickly deal with hundreds of legislative proposals.


On the opening day, following a first-ever orientation session for all delegates, a worship service will surround delegates and church leaders with songs from around the world. The songs will celebrate a renewal of baptism and Holy Communion, emphasizing the conference theme, “Water Washed and Spirit Born.” Banners, dancers and a variety of drummers and musicians will emphasize the worldwide nature of the gathering.

During the first week, the assembly will hear the Episcopal Address, given by Bishop Kenneth Carder of the Mississippi Area on behalf of the Council of Bishops. They also will hear the Laity Address, given by Gloria Holt of Trussville, Ala.

On April 30, the conference will hold a service of appreciation for African Americans who remained with the denomination during the segregation era and after. At the 2000 gathering in Cleveland, the conference held a service of confession and sought forgiveness for actions leading to the formation of black Methodist denominations in the 18th and 19th centuries.

President George and Laura Bush, members of the United Methodist Church, have been invited to address the Pittsburgh gathering, but assembly planners have not received any verification of their attendance.

One of the denomination’s 69 active bishops will preside over each plenary session. However, bishops cannot vote on any of the proposals and may speak to issues only after approval by a majority of delegates.

Bishops are selected to preside by a committee of delegates, and a single bishop generally presides over only one plenary session. Since the assembly has a history of getting into some knotty parliamentary problems, presiding officers ask colleagues to serve as parliamentarians. Both active and retired bishops sit together behind the presiding officer.

This year, the conference’s Rules Committee will ask delegates to approve a proposal that bishops also be allowed to serve as chairpeople of legislative committees.

Plenary sessions of the assembly will be translated simultaneously from English into German, French, Portuguese, Spanish and Swahili.

For the first time, the Advance Edition of the Daily Christian Advocate, a 1,600-page English-language book including a listing of delegates, all proposals and reports from all agencies, has been translated into Portuguese and French.

Each day during the conference, delegates will also receive an English edition of the Daily Christian Advocate containing the agenda, news, features, recommendations from legislative committees, and a verbatim report of preceding plenary sessions. Those daily editions enable delegates to know which proposal is being debated and actions taken on previous days. By the end of the 10-day session, delegates will have received more than 2,500 DCA pages.

A computer-tracking system enables delegates and visitors to determine the status of any petition or calendar item.

For additional information on General Conference, visit www.gc2004.org online.

*Peck is a retired clergy member of New York Annual Conference. He served as editor of the Daily Christian Advocate for four General Conferences and edited the 2000 Book of Resolutions. News media can contact Tim Tanton at (615)742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org .


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April 2, 2004
Action plan proposal aims to strengthen rural congregations
A UMNS Feature By Linda Bloom*

Although rural United Methodist churches make up a little more than a third of the denomination's membership, those congregations account for half the overall membership loss in recent decades.

To reverse that decline and provide other support to rural churches, an action plan to implement the denomination's National Comprehensive Plan for Town & Country Ministries has been proposed to the United Methodist General Conference, meeting April 27-May 7 in Pittsburgh.

The goals of the action plan are to develop, support and affirm effective ministries in rural cultures and contexts and develop, strengthen and sustain effective leadership for town and country ministries.

Directors of the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries heard specifics about the plan during their March 22-25 meeting in Stamford, Conn.

The Rev. Alan Rice, a district superintendent from North Wilkesboro, N.C., and a member of the planning team, told directors that more than half -- 20,203 of 35,670 -- of United Methodist congregations are rural, which means they are found in areas with less than 200 people per square mile.

Between 1982 and 2001, however, membership losses in rural congregations accounted for half of the denomination's total loss of slightly more than 1 million members. The denomination has 8.3 million U.S. members and 1.9 million members in Africa, Asia and Europe.

"They are perishing and I want to know who cares," Rice declared.

Expressing fear that UMC now stands for "Upper Middle Class," he said it is time for the denomination to make a radical change in how it deals with rural congregations.

The 2000 General Conference adopted a foundation document for Town & Country Ministries, called "Born Again in Every Place," with instructions that an implementation plan be developed over the next four years.

Dale Fooshee, a team member and board director from Topeka, Kan., said research has indicated many rural congregations feel "ignored within the connection." The action plan is not concerned with "managing decline," he added, but encouraging bold mission steps.

The action plan urges the denomination and its rural congregations to "catch fire" by moving the focus "from a survival mentality to self-sacrificing servanthood"; taking the initiative for Christ's ministry "by activating themselves for service and witness"; using resources available to them; and releasing energy and "letting it loose for empowerment and promise."

"Understanding the rural context and the varieties of rural culture is a task for the church as a whole as well as for local congregations," the plan states. While the local congregations must know their communities, it continues, denominational leaders, especially those in annual (regional) conferences with rural congregations, must "comprehend the complex realities of contemporary rural life."

The plan recommends the formation of a "general church team on town and country ministries" to promote collaboration among church agencies. A system of data collection and sharing is to be developed, and effective models of ministry promoted.

In terms of leadership, the plan acknowledges that town and country churches are "increasingly served by licensed local pastors, lay pastors, laity assigned and lay speakers. This is a pattern that is likely to continue and expand in the future, and it is out of the grace of God that The United Methodist Church recognizes and encourages the pastoral capacities of the laity."

It advocates the development of educational opportunities for both clergy and lay leadership. A "town and country ministry toolkit" is one resource suggested for training purposes.

The action plan recognizes witness to Jesus Christ in both remote areas and population centers. "Upholding and celebrating town and country ministry provides a sense of wholeness and can re-awaken the family of faith to our responsibility in all places," it says.

Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York. News media can contact Linda Bloom at (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org .

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Apr. 8, 2004
Restructure plan aims to improve work of church
A UMNS Report
By John A. Lovelace*

As it did four years ago, the United Methodist Church's top legislative assembly will once again consider a proposal for reordering the work of the denomination when delegates meet April 27-May 7 in Pittsburgh.

General Conference all but gutted the earlier proposal, brought by a Connectional Process Team, but it salvaged pieces of the plan and passed them on to the church's program-coordinating agency for more work. The resulting "Living Into the Future" plan proposes merging the work of the denomination's program-coordinating and finance agencies into a "Connectional Table," which would oversee ministries budgeted at more than $500 million per quadrennium.

Advocates say the proposal would bring the widespread denomination together. United Methodists have congregations and other ministries on four continents - Africa, Asia, Europe and North America (primarily the United States). All regions would be represented at the table, along with the Council of Bishops and officials from the churchwide general agencies.

Critics say the proposal would weaken the fiscal accountability and auditing function performed since 1972 by the denomination's finance and administration agency. Some opponents also take issue with the size of the table.

Even the document's proponents anticipate that it will be revised, which is standard procedure for United Methodist General Conferences. The assembly meets once every four years.

The document, as presented, would fold the two top-tier coordinating agencies into the Connectional Table as of Jan. 1, 2007. Those agencies are the General Council on Finance and Administration, with a 41-member governing board, and the General Council on Ministries, governed by 78 members. Ten other agencies accountable to the General Council on Ministries would retain their free-standing boards, with about 500 directors, but be accountable to and represented at the Connectional Table.

"Living Into the Future" is the General Council on Ministries' response to a mandate given to it by the General Conference four years ago to create "the most effective design for the work of the general agencies." The mandate is the latest in a series of efforts by General Conference over the years to improve the operation and coordination of churchwide ministries.

The council's conciliar officer, Cecelia M. Long, explained that in fulfilling this assignment, input was sought from annual conferences, central conferences, general agencies and others from across the church. The council has offices in Dayton, Ohio.

"GCOM believes 'Living Into the Future' provides the most effective setting for visioning, discernment and decision-making by members with a holistic view of the church," Long said.

"This proposal is an initial step, not the final step. The Connectional Table would determine what further changes are needed," she said. The table would recommend any such changes to the General Conference for approval.

The document is closer to current structure than were several proposals that surfaced within the General Council on Ministries in 2000, soon after the agency began working on the assignment. One idea called for dissolving the boards of most of the denomination's 14 agencies into one "General Board of the United Methodist Church." Council directors also discussed and set aside the idea of proposing a bicameral (two-part) legislative structure with a lay/clergy "house" and a "House of Bishops."

"Living Into the Future" evolved through several council meetings, regional hearings and drafts by a writing team. The council adopted it in September 2003 for referral to the General Conference.

One of the document's most insistent critics is the council's own elected secretary. The Rev. Andy Langford, senior pastor of Central United Methodist Church in Concord, N.C., acknowledges that the proposal "suggests a closer relationship between finances and ministry" but leaves a group of general agencies "even more distant from people in the pew and (leaves) even more distrust and inertia throughout the (whole church) connection."

In a 4,500-word written response, Langford said he hopes that the Pittsburgh gathering "will set aside 'Living Into the Future' and make the serious reforms that our denomination so badly needs." He indicated that the preferred model would be "smaller, less expensive and less centralized."

The Advance Daily Christian Advocate, a compilation of all the legislation going to General Conference, includes at least two proposals labeled as alternative Connectional Table plans. One calls for a smaller table - with 29 members instead of the 131 to 134 possible under "Living Into the Future" - with no budgetary authority. The other emphasizes evangelism and social action as key areas of focus and proposes that the new entity plan an annual convocation "where all United Methodists are invited to conduct the business" of the table.

Like all proposals for changes in United Methodist Church law, "Living Into the Future" will go first to the appropriate legislative committee, in this instance the 95-member General Conference Committee on General Administration. The committee could decide to accept "Living Into the Future," develop a different restructure proposal or retain the status quo.

*Lovelace is a writer and editor in Dallas. He has covered eight United Methodist General Conferences.


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April 14, 2004
Population changes mean continued need for Hispanic plan
By United Methodist News Service

New patterns in both migration and immigration have propelled Hispanics to the Southeastern United States.
The Rev. Eli Rivera, coordinator of the United Methodist National Plan for Hispanic Ministry, said that some of the denomination's annual (regional) conferences in the Southeast have experienced a 200 to 300 percent increase in Hispanic population. Mexicans and Mexican-Americans, for example, have flocked to the East Coast. The region's conferences are now seeking ways to reach these groups, he noted.

That's one reason why the plan's organizers are asking the United Methodist General Conference to renew its work for another four years, at a requested cost of $3.8 million. The church's top legislative body meets April 27-May 7 in Pittsburgh.

"Delegates need to know that of the money we're requesting, $1.5 million is in grants to annual conferences," Rivera told United Methodist News Service.

Matching grants to conferences are a key motivational tool for the plan, which will mark 12 years of operation at the end of 2004. Thirty conferences have received grants, to date, he said, and the hope is to obtain proposals from the other half during the 2005-2008 quadrennium.

Average funding is $50,000 for a multi-project grant or $20,000 for a single-project grant. Many conferences raise even more than the required matching amount for their programs, according to Rivera.

The plan's accomplishments from 1993 to 2003 included the establishment of 75 new churches and 75 revitalized churches in 35 conferences; the establishment of 600 new faith communities in 52 conferences; and the training of 900 lay missioners, 130 pastor/mentors and 125 facilitators.

If renewed by the 2004General Conference, the plan also will have a new name: The National Plan for Hispanic-Latino Ministry. The addition of the word "Latino" not only reflects a growing desire by some of Latin American origin to be identified by that term, but also a plan goal to minister to a growing Brazilian population in the United States, Rivera explained.

"In many Hispanic communities, we have Brazilians worshipping in Spanish," Rivera said, pointing out the need for a Portuguese-language ministry. And in cities like Dallas and Los Angeles, where Brazilian populations are growing, "no ministry has been developed."

David Ortigoza, coordinator of the United Methodist Southeastern Jurisdictional Administrative Council for Hispanic/Latino Ministry, knows all about the trends. A Brazilian and former general secretary of the Council of Evangelical Methodist Churches in Latin America and the Caribbean, he was specifically invited to the jurisdiction in 2001.

"I think this a great deal for the United Methodist Church," said Ortigoza, whose office is at Lake Junaluska, N.C., and covers 14 annual conferences and one missionary conference in nine states. "It's a very good opportunity to improve the mission with the Hispanic/Latino community."

Growth in the Hispanic/Latino population has been especially prevalent in North and South Carolina and Georgia. The first Brazilian faith community has started in North Georgia as a ministry of a local church.

Each conference has a different way of doing ministry, partly because of the various cultures involved. "We can't use the same model for everybody," Ortigoza said.

His council hosted a Feb. 19-21 convocation at Lake Junaluska aimed at helping church leaders and members of non-Latino congregations understand the various models of ministry and types of resources offered by the National Plan for Hispanic-Latino Ministry.

One of the strategies emerging from the annual conferences themselves, according to Rivera, is to establish a Hispanic ministries coordinator staff position. To date, 27 conferences use such a coordinator. "Having the coordinators help the conferences themselves organize the work," he explained. "That's something we're going to continue to celebrate and encourage."

Other plan goals for 2005-08 include:
* Providing resource development to 100 new congregations and revitalizing 100 existing congregations.
* Offering training to 800 lay missioners and 1,500 lay people.
* Commissioning up to 36 new missionaries.
* Providing ministry resources for 500 non-Hispanic/Latino congregations.
* Engaging in pastor/mentor training and strengthening local pastor courses of study.