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By the Rev. Youngsook Charlene Kang*
May 7, 2008
When the 2008 General Conference was over, I headed to the Dallas-Fort Worth airport with my eyes barely open.
As I checked my luggage, a couple of delegates standing next to me asked, "So, what is the order of the day?" We laughed. On the plane to Denver, another group of United Methodists asked, "What calendar items are you going to present?"
We were all happy there were none left to deliberate!
As chairperson of the Committee on Agenda and Calendar, ordering the agenda and calendar was my responsibility during 10 days of the General Conference, in consultation with the coordinator of the calendar and the entire committee. This was my fourth General Conference as a delegate, but it was the first time that I served on the Agenda Committee. My learning curve the first few days was steep. However, it was a privilege to serve in this capacity, and I learned how complex the work of scheduling legislative calendar items can be.
Time management
The underlying issue we faced was a basic daily scheduling structure. Delegates felt pressured with each day's tight schedule, which began at 8 a.m. and ended at around 11 p.m., with two less days to work than at previous General Conference meetings.
With less time for legislative committee work, many committees had to work through lunch and dinner breaks and after plenary sessions during the second week. For example, one committee completed its work only on Wednesday of the second week—two days before the conference adjourned. From the point of view of the Agenda Committee, it was difficult to order consent calendar and calendar items since several legislative committees still were completing their work.
"What we are doing at the General Conference is a spiritual work. Jesus told us to take Sabbath."Some who felt we had significantly less time for both committee and plenary work proposed that no less than 75 percent of General Conference be dedicated to legislative work. For me, the issue was not a lack of scheduled time for legislative work, but that many plenary presentations including worship ran over their scheduled time. In fact, 74 percent of this General Conference was scheduled for legislative work. My suggestion for the 2012 General Conference is to strongly urge that each presenter keep his or her presentation to the assigned time.
In spite of a pressured schedule, we completed all the calendar items through various creative omnibus motions made by delegates. As usual, the delegates were committed to completing their work.
Sunday off
Another scheduling challenge was not taking a day of rest on Sunday, as we have in previous assemblies, in an attempt to save conference expenses. With lack of sleep and a tight schedule, delegates were getting sick by the beginning of the second week. Some said, "I feel as if my eyes don't belong to me," indicating their eyes were red and puffy from sleep deprivation.
Such concerns led the Committee on Agenda and Calendar to move that no order of the day be scheduled on Sunday during the 2012 General Conference. I suggested we take Sunday off as a day of rest and provide time to attend local worship services in Tampa, Fla., where the next General Conference will be held. I believe that suggestion received the biggest applause from the delegates. The motion passed with an astounding yes!
So, we will have Sunday as a day of rest and a day of worship during the 2012 General Conference! What we are doing at the General Conference is a spiritual work. Jesus told us to take Sabbath. As we are called to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world, our spirit is strengthened and nurtured through an appropriate time of rest and Sabbath.
See you in 2012!
*Kang is superintendent of the Metropolitan District in the United Methodist Rocky Mountain Annual (regional) Conference.
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NOTE: Photographs are available with this report at www.gc2008.umc.org.
by Kathy L. Gilbert*
The United Methodist Church will continue to "sit at the table" and retain its 35-year membership with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
In a May 2 vote of 416-384, the 2008 General Conference affirmed continued membership of the denomination's Board of Church and Society and the Women's Division of the Board of Global Ministries in the organization.
"It is important to stay at the interfaith table so our Social Principles can inform other denominations," said the Rev. Tracy Smith Malone, a delegate from Northern Illinois and member of the Board of Church and Society.
Fourteen denominations including the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalism, Conservative Judaism and others are also full members of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
"RCRC does in fact support and advocate for all types of abortion," said Marget H. Sikes, vice chair of the committee bringing the legislation to the conference and a board of director's member of Church and Society. "The fact that they advocate for all types of abortions is troubling if not offensive."
Other delegates argued that the coalition does not support all forms of abortion. "Those claims are not accurate," said Fredrick Brewington, chair of the committee and also a member of the Board of Church and Society.
"Because we are at the table, we are able to make a difference for people who are in real need," he said.
Abortion
In other action, the 2008 United Methodist General Conference adopted a statement on abortion that adds language offering "ministries to reduce unintended pregnancies" and to assist the ministry of crisis pregnancy and support centers that help women "find feasible alternatives to abortion."
The Social Principles of The United Methodist Church first dealt with abortion in 1972. The church does not approve of abortion but "respects the sacredness of the life and well-being of the mother and the unborn child."
Found in the Book of Discipline, the Social Principles are a "prayerful and thoughtful effort on the part of the General Conference to speak to the human issues in the contemporary world from a sound biblical and theological foundation as historically demonstrated in United Methodist traditions." The General Conference amended the 1972 statement on abortion in 1976, 1980, 1984, 1988, 1992, 1996 and 2000.
Stem-cell research
The 2008 conference passed a new resolution on stem-cell research calling for the denomination's Board of Church and Society to identify and publish on its Web site educational resources on stem-cell research.
"We encourage each pastor to use the resources to become informed concerning the debate regarding the use of embryonic stem cells for medical research and to offer these resources for study in her or his local church," the resolution said.
Saying "some believe this century will be the ‘Century of Biology,'" the 2008 General Conference voted to join with other faith communities to support and dialogue with the medical and scientific communities concerning the ethic standards for its use.
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Kathy Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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NOTE: Photographs are available with this report at www.gc2008.umc.org.
by Kathy L. Gilbert*
The United Methodist Church "ramped up" its commitment to fight malaria by agreeing to enter into a capital campaign to raise $75 million to $100 million for global health.
"This is a milestone in the church's long history of caring for the poor and the whole person," said Bishop Janice Riggle Huie on May 1 in announcing the 2008 General Conference's approval of the Global Health Initiative.
Agencies and boards of the church will join with the United Nations Foundation and other organizations to combat the diseases of poverty: HIV/AIDS, malaria and tuberculosis. The initiative represents an expanded global partnership, Huie said.
The hope is that the partnership, led by the people of The United Methodist Church and organized by the U.N. Foundation, will raise $200 million to fight malaria in Africa. Development of the partnership has received support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation.
"This problem is greater than any one denomination or any one organization. We cannot beat malaria by ourselves," said Bishop Thomas Bickerton.
"We need to ramp up our efforts internally," Bickerton said.
The United Methodist boards of Global Ministries, Church and Society and Higher Education and Ministry, along with United Methodist Communications, will work together. The capital campaign will provide financial support to the Global Fund to Fight AIDS, Tuberculosis and Malaria.
Huie said the church will work on raising the funds "as long as it takes."
Malaria was eradicated in the United States in the 1950s, said Gabrielle Fitzgerald, an executive with the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation. "All lives have equal value, yet people in Africa are bearing the burden of malaria. Something is not working right."
Two years ago, the people of The United Methodist Church joined with the U.N. Foundation "in a collection of unlikely organizations" to form Nothing But Nets, said Elizabeth McKee Gore, a foundation executive.
Nothing But Nets, an anti-malaria campaign to purchase and distribute insecticide-treated bed nets for Africa, has raised $20 million, Gore said.
"The United Methodist Church has tremendous networks," said Huie. "In Côte d'Ivoire, there are 700,000 United Methodists who can be the backbone of the initiative."
"John Wesley said ‘the world is my parish' and that is the hallmark of who we are," said Bickerton. "This is a historic, new day for us."
*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, e-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.
Phone calls can be made to the General Conference Newsroom in Fort Worth, Texas, at (817) 698-4405 until May 3. Afterward, call United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn., at (615) 742-5470.
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NOTE: Photographs are available with this report at www.gc2008.umc.org.
by J. Richard Peck*
Delegates to the 2008 General Conference of The United Methodist Church approved a plan that will result in one less bishop in each of four of the five U.S. jurisdictions, beginning in 2012.
In an April 29 legislative session, delegates agreed that savings from those reductions will be used to fund new episcopal areas outside the United States.
Those new areas -- each to be led by a bishop -- will not be created until the 2012 General Conference.
The North Central, Northeastern, South Central and Western jurisdictions will each have one less bishop under a new formula for determining the number of bishops. The action will not affect the Southeastern Jurisdiction, as it already has one less bishop than the present formula allows, and it is not requesting an additional Episcopal leader. The Northeastern Jurisdiction will lose a bishop in both 2008 and 2012.
The new formula will not take effect until Jan. 1, 2009, so it will not affect the numbers of bishops to be elected in the U.S. in July.
A Task Force to Study the Episcopacy, mandated by the 2004 General Conference, proposed the reduction, but the legislative committee considering the petition voted 44 to 13 not to recommend the new formula to the entire 992-member body. Only eight laypersons served on that 57-member committee.
The Rev. Thomas Eblen, delegate and director of congregational development for the Kentucky Annual (regional) Conference, noted that a task force has been studying the issue for four years, "so let's listen to them."
The Rev. Deborah Fisher of Northern Illinois opposed any reduction in the number of bishops. "Our own bishop is leading our conference to growth," she said. "Reduction in the number of bishops says we give in to decline, not staff for growth."
The Rev. Robert Long of Oklahoma City did not see any relationship between the number of bishops and church growth. He said he started a new congregation and did not see a bishop until his church reached 3,000 members.
The assembly adopted the proposal from the task force, 457 to 401. The conference then agreed, 435 to 394, that the $4.8 million anticipated savings will be used to fund new episcopal areas outside the United States.
Present and future formulas
At present, each jurisdiction having 500,000 church members or fewer is entitled to six bishops. Jurisdictions with more than 500,000 members are entitled to one additional bishop for each 320,000 members. There is a provision for additional bishops if episcopal areas average more than 55,000 square miles.
The task force noted that the current formula results in great inequities in the number of churches per bishop (256 to 928) and the number of members per bishop (58,970 to 225,814).
The new formula provides for one bishop for every 150,000 members or one bishop for 100,000 members in jurisdictions where episcopal areas average more than 55,000 square miles.
*Peck is a retired United Methodist clergyman and four-time editor of the Daily Christian Advocate now serving as an editor for United Methodist News Service during General Conference
News media contact: Kathy Noble or Tim Tanton, e-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.
Phone calls can be made to the General Conference Newsroom in Fort Worth, Texas, at (817) 698-4405 until May 3. Afterward, call United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn., at (615) 742-5470.
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Nebraska Delegation Blog
General Conference Web Site
United Methodist News Service
by Vicki Brown*
At age 26, Matthew Johnson may be one of the younger General Conference delegates.
Even so, 2008 marks his third trip as a voting delegate to The United Methodist Church's top legislative body, which makes him one of the most experienced members of the church's delegation from the Western Pennsylvania Annual (regional) Conference.
Both age and experience were factors in his election to lead the delegation, according to Johnson, one of four young adults who are delegation leaders at the 2008 General Conference. All agreed that a desire to have younger faces visible and younger voices heard played a part in their elections.
All four are aware that they are having input into conversations that shape the denomination's future as the assembly meets April 23-May 2 in Fort Worth, Texas. All four hope to represent an inclusiveness that will encourage more young adults to get involved in local church leadership. They also believe older members will see that young adults have a great deal to offer.
Johnson, a seminarian at Asbury Theological Seminary, recalled how a district superintendent mentored him when he was a 17-year-old delegate to the 2000 General Conference. "He really showed me how everything worked, took me under his wing, and taught me. He did so much more than would have been expected," Johnson said.
Luke Wetzel is a first-time delegate and the leader of the Kansas East delegation. The 20-year-old Emory undergraduate formed a General Conference Facebook group that has 93 members. Members of the online social network group are mostly young adults.
"Many conferences, if they elect a young person, it's as an alternate delegate," Wetzel said. The Young Adult Committee of the Kansas East Conference successfully campaigned for one-third of its delegation to be under age 40. Three of the nine lay delegates and three of the nine clergy delegates are all under 40, said Wetzel, who is considering seminary.
Developing new leaders
The Rev. Meg Lassiat, director of Student Ministries, Vocation, and Enlistment at the United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry, said the choice of young adults to lead their General Conference delegations is an exciting opportunity to develop new leaders. The board is the church agency with primary responsibility for leadership development.
"As young adults participate in and lead their delegations, they will have the opportunity to shape the future direction of our denomination," Lassiat said. "Then, when they return to their local communities and ministries, we hope that they will also find the necessary mentoring and training there that will sustain them in their everyday leadership and service."
Wetzel, the Rev. Molly Vetter, who leads the California Pacific delegation, and Devin Mauney, who leads the Desert Southwest delegation, all said they are conscious of the need to represent the diversity of young adults.
"I think the fact that I was the first elected clergy delegate reflects the value my conference is putting on empowering young people," said Vetter, 31, associate pastor at First United Methodist Church of San Diego. "But I'm nervous about being asked to serve as a representative of young people because I'm not sure I am representative. I have a lifelong association with the church, and I've been a pastor for seven years. Young people have as much diversity and difference as older people."
Wetzel believes it goes "a long way for older people to see young people who care about where the church is going." But he adds that it is a bigger challenge for young people to take leadership roles in the local church.
"That's where beliefs and practices are more ingrained. We need to go beyond asking a young person to read Scripture to having them part of the planning and mission of the church," he said.
Empowering young voices
Vetter agrees that it is a struggle not only to invite but to empower young voices. "It's one thing to have young adults at the table, it's another thing to listen to them. … There is always a temptation to elect people with experience," said Vetter, who was a reserve lay delegate in 2000.
"I'm trying to be prayerful and attentive to remaining in a conversation that's grounded and connected to God in such a way that I'll stay faithful to what most brings us together."
Mauney, 21, who leads the Desert Southwest Conference, says that while he is young, he has experienced serving on the United Methodist Commission on Communication and at the 2004 Western Jurisdictional Conference.
The Arizona State student knows it is difficult to have diverse representation in his delegation when there are only two voting members to General Conference. He believes young people are calling out for the church to be more relevant in their lives and the world.
"They want the church to use more technology, to work for social justice issues. That's why the Nothing But Nets campaign has been so important," Mauney said of the church's partnership in the anti-malaria initiative in Africa.
Johnson said one important lesson he learned in 2000 and 2004 was not to try to do everything.
"I need to figure out what I consider the pressing issues and use ‘my say' to speak to those issues," Johnson said. In 2004, as a member of the assembly's discipleship committee, he worked hard on the issue of certification of lay speakers because he had grown up in a rural church with 40 members and believed it was especially important to rural churches.
"I also worked on allowing local pastors to be appointed to extension ministries. I knew someone who had an opportunity to work in prison ministry as a chaplain, but was a local pastor. I basically stood up and told this guy's story."
Johnson, a member of the Palo Alto United Methodist Church, one of six churches in the Hyndman Larger Parish, is also a youth minister at Nicholasville (Ky.) United Methodist Church.
"My work in our annual conference and at General Conference has affected the way I lead. I've developed a passion for The United Methodist Church as a whole," Johnson said. "I've sat in lots of church and conference meetings where I was the youngest person there, and I've learned how to speak so what I say will be respected."
*Brown is associate editor and writer, Office of Interpretation, United Methodist Board of Higher Education and Ministry.
News media contact: Marta Aldrich, e-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.
Phone calls can be made to the General Conference Newsroom in Fort Worth, Texas, at (817) 698-4405 until May 3. Afterward, call United Methodist News Service in Nashville, Tenn., at (615) 742-5470.
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All reported that more dollars are needed to address the global health issue of HIV/AIDS.
Bishop Mutti pointed out that the difficulty in health education and monetary support of this disease over other diseases of poverty is that HIV/AIDS has a stigma attached to it in almost every culture. Whereas people who suffer from malaria and tuberculosis are met with compassion, HIV/AIDS victims are often met with scorn and isolation. This fact alone makes it difficult to provide education and support in a broad based way as successfully as with other crisis diseases.
A list of HIV/AIDS projects receiving support was presented by Patricia Magyar who oversees the HIV/AIDS grant requests and distributions. Distributions total $662,984.
Don Messer, the director of the Center for the Church and Global AIDS Fund and the author of the resolution passed during General Conference 2004 to raise $1 per United Methodist member (or $8 million) in support of HIV/AIDS relief, talked about the $2,124,171 raised to date. The total is comprised of individual church contributions, UMCOR dollars and the Zimbabwe Orphan Endeavor (ZOE). In Nebraska 9,315.68 has been raised in support of the Global AIDS Fund. Conference contributions range from some conferences raising no funds towards the project to the ZOE project that raised $832,200. The total falls short of the $8 million goal.
Bishop Joau Somane Michado of Mozambique gave an impassioned response about the importance of education and how that education needs to be delivered in the context of the culture or country in which the education is being offered.
He also praised the effort and the groundwork that has been achieved to specifically help Central Conferences begin to address the HIV/AIDS problem. However, he noted the enormous amount of work that remains to be done.
General Secretary Larry Hollon pointed to the Nothing But Nets campaign and the idea that the distribution system developed by that project will be helpful as the General Conference pursues health strategies to overcome all diseases of poverty. Bishop Fritz Mutti is optimistic that more collaborative approaches will be made around fund raising and education focusing on the diseases of poverty. Diseases of poverty include HIV/AIDS, tuberculosis and malaria.
An Upper Room booklet addressing the topic of AIDS was introduced and promoted as another education tool for the church to use in its effort to mitigate the stigma associated with HIV/AIDS.
Resources and HIV/AIDS information is available at www.umglobalaidsfund.org.
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For more General Conference news go to:
Nebraska Delegation Blog
General Conference Web Site
United Methodist News Service
(Photo right) The Rev. Doyle Burbank Williams (left) holds the tent pole as the Rev. Charlotte Abram (center) and Bill Hasemeyer (right) read the scripture story of Abraham and Sarah.
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Petitions that seek to guarantee membership of certain types of people to General Conference and to United Methodist general agencies are unconstitutional, the Judicial Council ruled.
Responding to a request for a decision from the floor of the opening plenary session of 2008 General Conference, the council cited previous rulings -- Decisions 594 and 601 -- in which the denomination's supreme court forbade "any legislation which would guarantee a preferred status not extended to others."
In Decision 1090, the Judicial Council cited its ruling in Decision 601 that disciplinary provisions that "recommend" or ask that "special attention" be given to membership of certain categories of persons on general boards are constitutional. The council cited Paragraph 705.3i of the 2004 Book of Discipline as an example.
Kevin Goodwin, delegate from the Peninsula-Delaware Annual (regional) Conference, asked for the ruling April 23. He cited six petitions that mandate agency membership for disabled persons, youth and central conference members, and that guaranteed representation of youth, young adults and central conference as delegates at General Conference.
The Judicial Council ruled that if any of the petitions were to be adopted, they would "guarantee a preferred status and are, therefore, unconstitutional."
Shamwange P. Kyungu was absent. C. Rex Bevins, the first clergy alternate, participated in this decision.
*Caldwell is editor of the Virginia United Methodist Advocate and covers the Judicial Council for United Methodist News Service
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Nebraska Delegation Blog
General Conference Web Site
United Methodist News Service
Young people worked as team to give address at gathering 2008
Photographs and video are available with this report at www.gc2008.umc.org.
by Kathy L. Gilbert*
FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS) —Six strangers came together and found one voice to present the first ever Young People's Address to an international delegation of United Methodists.
In a press conference after the address to the 2008 United Methodist General Conference, Becca Farnum, 17, said the six have become "good friends," adding she hoped the end of the address would not be the end of their relationship.
The six received resounding approval from the 992 delegates and were asked to talk about what experiences in the church made them into the young role models they are today.
Annie Arnoldy, 29, said growing up in The United Methodist Church helped "form" her, but it was pastors who took a personal interest in her that "transformed" her.
"I fell in love with the church," said Arnoldy, who will be ordained as a United Methodist pastor in June.
Jason Rathod, 24, credited a summer internship with the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, his father ¬-- a United Methodist pastor ¬¬-- and his college pastor with helping him become involved in leadership roles in the church.
Even though he started out in the Episcopal Church, Andrew Craig, 16, said it was United Methodists who encouraged him after he gave his first speech in a United Methodist church. That support led him to send in an audition tape to the United Methodist Division on Ministries with Young People, Board of Discipleship.
Kira Volkova, 24, described herself as a "non-Christian" who joined The United Methodist Church when she was 10 years old after she met some United Methodist missionaries in Russia.
"Their example inspired me to become involved," she said. Volkova is also a candidate for ordination in the church.
Matt Lockett, 20, said young people need to be asked about what they would be interested in doing in church.
"There is nothing you can say that will ever make young people stay in church," he said. "You have to give them some responsibility. I didn't go to church at all until I was 14 because my mother kept telling me I should."
*Gilbert is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy Gilbert, e-mail: newsdesk@umcom.org.
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Supporters of the United Nations Foundation's Nothing But Nets campaign raised money for life-saving bed nets by hosting a 4-day bike ride through Texas! Pastor Morris Matthis of Christ United Methodist Church in Sugar land Texas, lead a 238-mile bike ride from Montgomery to Fort Worth in an effort to raise both money and awareness for malaria prevention in Africa.
On April 23 in downtown Fort Worth at 1:00 p.m., the participants concluded their ride. They were met by Bishop Huie and Bishop Benjamin Boni of Cote d'Ivorie with the total donations collected.
The 30 riders−all Pastors−raised 156,000 dollars for Nothing But Nets.
- General Conference Web site
- Nebraska Children and the Poor Committee
Focus on the Children and the Poor Committee