Surveying General Conference Issues

By Thomas Lambrecht

The United Methodist General Conference is many things, but primarily it is a legislative assembly. The bulk of its time is devoted to considering, refining, and adopting legislative proposals that become the “laws” that are supposed to govern our church. (We have written elsewhere about the increasing tendency by some bishops and other leaders to disregard the requirements of church laws they disagree with.)

One can picture the General Conference as a Congress that meets for two weeks every four years. Like in Congress, various bills are proposed that would add to, delete, or amend current church laws. We call those bills “petitions.” Like in Congress, petitions are considered by one of 15 legislative committees – 14 regular committees plus the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters. If a petition is adopted by its legislative committee (with or without amendments), it is then considered by the plenary session of all the delegates meeting together. Many petitions are adopted on a consent calendar, which allows them to be approved all at once as a large group. These are petitions that are non-controversial and receive very little opposition in their legislative committee. Plenary debate is reserved for the more difficult and controversial issues. Once all the changes are considered and adopted, the laws are compiled together into our Book of Discipline.

In addition to church laws found in the Book of Discipline, the church adopts policy statements on many social issues. These policy statements are called “Resolutions.” They are compiled together into a Book of Resolutions that is just as thick as the Discipline. They are not binding in the same way the laws of the Book of Discipline are. Instead, they are meant to be a resource guide for how to think Christianly about a particular issue. Some resolutions stray into political territory or propose concrete solutions to societal problems, which is why they tend to be more controversial and may take up a disproportionate share of the agenda time at the General Conference. Resolutions automatically expire after eight years, so they have to be updated and approved again in order to continue in effect. This process becomes a cycle of controversy as disagreements resurface every eight years when the resolution is renewed, promoting conflict.

According to United Methodist News Service, there are over 1,100 petitions and resolutions to be considered at the 2024 General Conference. Some consist only of one line (e.g., reapprove Resolution 52 in the Book of Resolutions). Others can be 10-15 pages long and highly complex.

In the past, Good News would recommend positions on 300-400 petitions and resolutions each General Conference, indicating whether we supported or opposed a given petition, and whether it needed to be amended to gain our support. This year, due to the liminal time we are in, with separation happening from the UM Church and many moving to the Global Methodist Church, Good News and our coalition partners are focused mainly on supporting petitions allowing disaffiliation to continue for a short time into the future and opposing the regionalization of church governance. Most of our constituency will be moving into the GM Church or otherwise disaffiliating from the UM Church, so it would be inappropriate for our coalition to heavily influence the future direction of United Methodism.

Articles on disaffiliation and regionalization have appeared in earlier issues of Good News magazine, so this article will examine the other issues that will be considered by the General Conference. While not taking positions supporting or opposing these petitions, we still think it is important for church members to be aware of the issues that will be decided in Charlotte.

There are at least 34 petitions related to disaffiliation and 39 related to regionalization proposals. The disaffiliation petitions propose various processes of disaffiliation, some more helpful than others. There are three major regionalization proposals: the Connectional Table proposal, the Christmas Covenant, and the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters proposal. Each is slightly different and contains a number of different petitions. It will be up to the delegates to decide among these competing proposals.

LGBT Questions. The constellation of issues receiving the most attention at the General Conference will be questions around whether to allow the church to perform same-sex weddings, whether partnered gay and lesbian people may be ordained as clergy, and whether our church’s position on non-discrimination should be extended to their status as gay or lesbian or non-binary or transgender or other gender identities.

No fewer than 87 petitions have been submitted that relate to these questions. That makes it the largest category of petitions. Some would reinforce the traditional position adopted by the church in 1972 and reaffirmed every General Conference since, including 2019. The vast majority of the submitted petitions, however, would act to liberalize the church’s stance on these questions. They would change the church’s definition of marriage to “two persons,” instead of “one man and one woman.” They would allow pastors to conduct same-sex weddings and for such services to be held in UM churches. They would allow church funds to be spent to promote the affirmation of homosexuality. They would allow partnered gays and lesbians to be ordained as clergy and to serve also as bishops. They would remove all chargeable offenses related to homosexuality and end any current complaints or proceedings against anyone for such offenses. A few of the petitions would make this liberalizing contingent upon whatever the laws of a given nation stipulate. In countries where the practice of homosexuality is illegal, this liberalization would not take effect (similar to the regionalization proposals).

Given that a substantial number of traditionalist delegates have left the UM Church, it is likely that a progressive-centrist majority will adopt this liberalizing agenda regarding LGBTQ proposals.

Abortion. There are at least 14 petitions related to abortion. Most were submitted in 2019 and advocate for a stronger position against abortion. Several submitted last year advocate a position in favor of abortion rights. The U.S. Supreme Court Dobbs decision reversing Roe v. Wade will undoubtedly impact the discussion of this issue, with a backlash favoring abortion rights in the U.S. likely to be decisive.

Africa Realignment and Bishops. A proposal will be considered to add a new central conference in Africa. In addition to the West Africa and Congo Central Conferences, the rest of the countries would be divided between an East Africa and a South Africa Central Conference. This would help with the grouping of similar languages and geographical area in the same central conference. The 2016 promise to add five new bishops to the existing 13 bishops in Africa will be reconsidered. One proposal adds the new bishops in Zimbabwe, East Africa, Nigeria, and two in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters will reconsider this proposal at the General Conference in light of budget cuts and possible disaffiliations.

Bishops. Traditional Plan proposals would enhance the accountability of bishops at the global level. Several petitions propose term limits of varying lengths for bishops.

Number of Bishops. Some petitions submitted in 2019 would maintain the number of bishops the church had back then in the U.S. A few more recent petitions would reduce the minimum number of bishops in each jurisdiction from five to four or otherwise reduce the number of U.S. bishops in order to provide more bishops for Africa. One interesting proposal would provide general church funding for the minimum number of five bishops per jurisdiction. Each jurisdiction could add more bishops to that minimum number, but the jurisdiction would have to pay for the extra bishops.

Fair Representation. Twenty petitions attempt to increase central conference membership on various boards and agencies of the church. Until now, while making up over half of the church’s membership, central conference representatives usually number around a third of board and agency members.

Voting Rights. A series of petitions would expand the right of licensed local pastors and Associate Members to vote on constitutional amendments, election of delegates to General Conference, and the character and status of clergy. Many of these rights have been given to full-time licensed local pastors who have completed the Course of Study, but the current petitions would expand that to part-time licensed local pastors and not require completion of the Course. They would also expand voting rights for provisional members, who are not yet ordained clergy.

Pensions. The General Board of Pensions and Health Benefits (Wespath) is proposing to abolish the current pension program and replace it with a new Compass program. Compass would be an entirely defined contribution plan, where the money contributed by clergy and their churches would go into their individual accounts and provide the total retirement income they would receive at retirement. There would be no guaranteed amount of a pension, as there was in the pre-1982 program or in the current CRSP program (which is part defined benefit pension and part defined contribution investment program). Wespath says the current CRSP program is financially unsustainable and takes on too much long-term liability for the annual conferences, so must be discontinued.

Retirement Age. There are several petitions to eliminate mandatory retirement for clergy, which is currently required at age 75. One petition clarifies the age of retirement for bishops, in light of the fact that several African bishops have surpassed the mandatory retirement age but have not stepped down. Other petitions either raise the retirement age for bishops or eliminate it altogether.

Separation Plans. There are 53 petitions related to separation plans. These include the Protocol, the Indianapolis Plan, the Plain Grace Plan, the Jones plan for forming new Methodist denominations, the Two Jurisdiction plan, and the UM Communion plan. They were all submitted in 2019. Since disaffiliation has already moved forward in the U.S., these plans are probably moot, in that their time has passed. More applicable petitions would provide official recognition of the Global Methodist Church as another Christian denomination and would encourage the development of positive relations between the two denominations. Other petitions clarify that active or retired UM clergy cannot serve in congregations of another denomination without the permission of the bishop and board of ordained ministry.

Social Principles. The General Board of Church and Society is proposing a newly rewritten version of the Social Principles, our denominational statement on numerous social issues. In development for at least eight years, the rewrite is supposed to make the Social Principles more contemporary, succinct, and theologically grounded. Readers will have to judge whether that objective was achieved. Most of the church’s stances on issues did not change with the rewrite, except for the issues of marriage and human sexuality. The rewrite changes the definition of marriage to “two people” and removes language calling the practice of homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

Traditional Plan. There are 12 petitions relating to the Traditional Plan that was passed at the 2019 Special General Conference. Two of them would further implement the Traditional Plan through clarifying legislation. The other ten would repeal aspects of the Traditional Plan, including several provisions not related to sexuality that attempted to make the complaint process more fair, transparent, and accountable.

This survey only scratches the surface of the many issues coming before the General Conference. (Some observers would see that as part of the problem with the General Conference, that it tries to speak about too many issues.) There are proposals about divesting from industries developing fossil fuels, divesting from support of Israel, support for environmental causes, and many others. It will be up to the delegates to decide which proposals become church law in the Discipline or enshrine the church’s opinion in the Book of Resolutions. Good News will be tracking the outcome and sharing reports throughout the General Conference.

Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News. Photo: General Conference 2012, Tampa by Steve Beard.