United Methodist News Service Photo by Paul Jeffrey
A legislative committee votes during the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, TX.
Mirroring the U.S. Congress, General Conference's legislative work occurs in various committees, which review thousands of petitions and recommend them for action by the full body.
The Book of Discipline provides that any individual United Methodist, local church, annual conference, churchwide board or agency or specially constituted study group may submit petitions to change church rules. Some 1,600 petitions are expected to come before the 2012 General Conference.
Committees are organized according to the sections of the Book of Discipline that petitions would affect. For the 2012 session, there will be 13 legislative committees, plus the Standing Committee on Central Conferences, which deals with all petitions related to areas outside the United States. Delegates from each annual and central conference are allowed to choose the committee on which they will serve, based upon their order of election. Committees choose their chair, vice chair and secretary during an organizational session at General Conference.
The legislative committees for 2012 are:
1) Church and Society 1
This committee will deal with petitions related to work of the Board of Church and Society and the concerns of the Social Principles with the exception of Discipline paragraphs 161 and 162. This includes:
............................Social Principles Preface
............................Social Principles Preamble
160 ......................The Natural World
163 ......................The Economic Community
164 ......................The Political Community
165 ......................The World Community
166 ......................Our Social Creed
629 ......................AC: Board of Church and Society
661 ......................District Director of Church and Society
1001-1011 ...........General Board of Church and Society
2) Church and Society 2
This committee will deal with petitions related to paragraphs 161 The Nurturing Community and 162 The Social Community of the Social Principles in the Book of Discipline. This committee will review all petitions related to the church's stances on homosexual practice, abortion, sexual abuse, and similar topics.
3) Conferences.
This committee will deal with all petitions relating to the composition and activities of the General, Jurisdictional, Annual, Provisional, Missionary, and District Conferences, and Missions, including the Jurisdictional, Annual and District Connectional Ministries or equivalent. This includes Book of Discipline paragraphs:
8-l2 ..................... Constitution: Conferences
13-16 .................. Constitution: General Conference
23-27 .................. Constitution: Jurisdictional Conferences
32-36 .................. Constitution: Annual Conferences
37-41 .................. Constitution: Boundaries
42 ....................... Constitution: District Conferences
501-511 .............. General Conference (including opening statement)
512-528 .............. Jurisdictional Conference
529 ..................... Jurisdictional Agencies
530 ..................... Jurisdictional Coordination of Programs
531 ..................... Jurisdictional Program Agencies
580-583 .............. Provisional Annual Conferences
585-588 .............. Missionary Conference
590-591 .............. Mission
601-608 .............. Annual Conference
610 ..................... Annual Conference Agencies
653 ..................... AC: Committee on Disability Concerns
657-658 .............. District Conference