General Conference Leaders Start Afresh

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Nov. 26, 2024 | CHARLOTTE, N.C. (UM News)

Key points:

  • The General Conference commission, with largely new membership, began its work preparing The United Methodist Church’s next legislative assembly in 2028.
  • The group seeks to address past concerns about a lack of communication and lack of visas.
  • The group also heard an update on the ratification process for regionalization and other amendments to the denomination’s constitution.

With new leaders and almost entirely new membership, the group that plans General Conference kicked off its preparations for the 2028 United Methodist assembly hoping to turn from past mistakes and act with more transparency.

As part of that effort, the group met Nov. 19-21 in the host city of this year’s General Conference and heard from the event volunteers about what went well and what needs improvement.

The Commission on the General Conference also received an update on the ratification process for regionalization and other amendments to the denomination’s constitution moved forward by this year’s assembly. Those amendments will be up for a vote next year at the denomination’s annual conferences — organizational bodies consisting of lay and clergy voters from multiple congregations.

Mostly, the commission discussed how to help The United Methodist Church start anew after decades of General Conference being defined by the denomination’s debate over the status of LGBTQ people. This year’s General Conference eliminated denomination-wide bans on gay clergy and same-sex marriage while allowing greater freedom on marriage and ordination standards.

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The Commission on the General Conference consists of 25 members elected by General Conference.

During the Nov. 19-21 meeting, the new commission members established a covenant for their work together.

Commission members also formed four committees:

  • The Program Committee that develops the General Conference agenda.
  • The Rules Committee that develops rules for General Conference procedure; this group also serves as the Ethics Committee during General Conference.
  • The Connectional Relations Committee that focuses on communications, training, visa accessibility and travel.
  • The Futuring Committee that looks at making General Conference more environmentally sustainable with less waste and seeks to reimagine how General Conference will operate if regionalization is ratified.

The commission also voted to retain a parliamentarian, renew technology investments and hire administrative contract/part-time support team members for General Conference work.

Read General Conference commission press release 

“I am excited that after a long time and a lot of energy and money and resources being spent arguing about human sexuality, we are in an era when we can refocus that energy, renew our sense of mission and purpose to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to get on with the work of transforming the world to look more like the Kin-dom of God,” the Rev. Andy Call, the commission’s new chair, said during the opening devotion.

“So I am grateful for that and grateful for this moment, and I just want to remind us that in all of it, our strength comes from Christ Jesus, our Lord.”

General Conference, the international denomination’s top legislative assembly, is the only body that officially speaks for The United Methodist Church.

Preparing the two-week gathering — which typically happens every four years — is a massive undertaking. Organizers must make accommodations for the multiple languages and dietary needs of United Methodists from four continents. They also have the challenge of trying to ensure delegates can obtain the necessary visas to attend.

Like Call, just about everyone now leading General Conference preparation is new to their roles.

The Rev. Aleze M. Fulbright, the new General Conference secretary, took office Nov. 1, alongside Sharah Dass, the new business manager.

Typically, commission members serve eight-year terms, with about half of the commission returning from planning the previous General Conference. But because the COVID-19 pandemic delayed the 2020 General Conference to this year, General Conference delegates ended up electing a whole new slate of 25 commission members. Only a handful of members are returning after filling unexpired terms on the previous commission.

COVID-caused delays not only resulted in a largely new commission but in a change of venues for this year’s assembly from Minneapolis, the original site scheduled in 2020, to Charlotte, North Carolina.

That change, announced in late 2022, presented immediate challenges to the Charlotte host committee comprising members of both the Western North Carolina and North Carolina conferences. The committee was only able to begin its work about a year ahead of General Conference.

Despite the late start in planning, host committee coordinators told the commission that they ultimately were able to organize more than 1,000 United Methodist volunteers to help delegates at the airport, area hotels and the convention center where General Conference took place. Delegates easily could identify the volunteers by their red aprons and Cross and Flame #BeUMC buttons. Many of those volunteers used their vacation time to help out at the big meeting.

Members of the host committee also shared with the commission their suggestions for improvement. One consistent concern they mentioned was the need for more and earlier communication from the commission and General Conference staff.

Wanda Musgrave, the Western North Carolina co-chair of the host committee, emphasized that host committee members are always eager to help and hope to be trusted as partners in the work.

“Through the good times and some not bad times, just trying times, it was always a privilege to serve in this capacity,” she said. “And together, we knew that we were doing God’s holy work.”

The commission has not yet selected the location of the 2028 General Conference but expects to make a decision in spring 2025 and begin working with United Methodists in the area as quickly as possible.

In the meantime, commission members agreed that they hoped to do better with communication with the next host committee and with the broader United Methodist Church as preparations move forward.

“The most important lesson we can learn is to be clear about what is truly confidential and what are things we just prefer not to tell people,” Call said toward the end of the meeting. Call is also a veteran General Conference delegate and lead pastor of Church of the Saviour in Cleveland Heights, Ohio.

“Even if the news is not great,” he said, “if it is not confidential, it ought to be shared.”

The pandemic also affected wait times for visas, and a lack of visas contributed to the absence of 84 delegates out of 862 allotted to the most recent General Conference. However, commission members hope better communication here, too, will help with getting out invitation letters early to duly elected delegates.

During the meeting, the commission also heard an update from Fulbright on the constitutional amendments heading out to annual conference voters.

Fulbright said the plan is to release an educational document about the amendments by Dec. 15. The document will be available in General Conference’s four official languages: English, French, Portuguese and Kiswahili.

She also said that all the amendments required for regionalization will be on one ballot, just as they were at General Conference.

Under regionalization, the central conferences — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines — as well as the United Methodist presence in the U.S. would each become regional conferences with equal authority to adapt parts of the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, to their missional needs.

The three other amendments going before annual conferences voters would:

  • Add to the constitution that neither “gender” nor “ability” are bars to church membership.
  • Take an explicit stand against racism, racial inequity, colonialism, white privilege and white supremacy.
  • Broaden educational requirements to make it easier for licensed local pastors in central conferences to vote for General Conference clergy delegates.

To be ratified, constitutional amendments must receive at least two-thirds of the aggregate votes taken at all annual conferences. Put another way, the threshold for passage is not a two-thirds vote at each annual conference but two-thirds of all annual conference votes. The amendments’ fate will not be known until all 130 annual conferences around the globe have the chance to vote.

Annual conferences will begin voting on the amendments as early as February next year. Voters can give each ballot an up or down vote, but they cannot alter the language before them.

The Council of Bishops plans to canvas all annual conference votes in spring 2026 to see if they reached the two-thirds threshold.

If regionalization is ratified, that could mean big changes for how General Conference operates, starting in 2032. But because of the work needed to put regionalization in place, Fulbright said she expects the coming legislative assembly in 2028 to follow much the same format as it has previously.

“As I look around the room, I have such gratitude for the opportunity to serve in this capacity for such this time,” Fulbright told the commission at the end of the meeting.

“I take away grace personified in every single one of you, and I want to thank you for that. I also want to thank you for your excitement, for your commitment, for the connection and for the ways in which we will carry forward.”

Heather Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News.