The Commission on General Conference is submitting legislation to the 2016 General Conference that, if approved, would limit petitions at future legislative gatherings.
Basically, the commission’s legislation would require petitions have the endorsement of at least one official United Methodist body to be considered by General Conference. Those entities include a local church council, charge conference, annual conference, jurisdictional or central conference, church agency, the Council of Bishops or one of the denomination’s official racial/ethnic caucus.
“This is a response to the number of petitions we receive that are not meant to be adopted,” said the Rev. L. Fitzgerald “Gere” Reist II, secretary of the General Conference. “They are meant to make statements, but they still require the cost of translation, publication and time.”
As an example, he pointed to a petition to stone children if they talk back to their parents.
“Realistically,” he added, “if something cannot get the support of a charge conference or a Sunday school class or some other level of church life, it probably doesn’t need to have the General Conference spend money and time on it.”
– Heather Hahn, United Methodist News Service