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Monday, April 22, 2024

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General Conference Update: South Georgia Edition - April 22

The United Methodist Church’s top legislative body will meet in Charlotte, North Carolina on April 23-May 3, 2024.

General Conference is the top policy-making body of The United Methodist Church, which meets once every four years. However, because of the pandemic, the last regular session of General Conference was nearly eight years ago. The conference can revise church law, as well as adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy, and economic issues. It also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs.

Your South Georgia Conference delegation has been meeting to pray, study, and discuss legislation over the last year and are now arriving in Charlotte along with other delegates, bishops, leaders, and guests from around the world. 

Throughout General Conference, the South Georgia Conference Communications team will send email updates with important General Conference news and details. Please forward these to friends and others who may be interested in important UM news. They can also subscribe here.
 

Spotted in Charlotte

Look who we spotted in Charlotte: Bishop David Graves and Mrs. Nancy Graves!

A Word from Bishop Graves
Nancy and I arrived in Charlotte, NC last Tuesday, and I began meeting Wednesday with other bishops from around the world as we look ahead to General Conference beginning tomorrow. I want to thank you for the prayers you have offered for me, for our delegation, and for the entire General Conference. My prayer for our work here in Charlotte is that we would seek to be faithful and work together so General Conference will be fruitful for the global witness of The United Methodist Church. And my prayer for you back home is that you will lean in to the great gifts that God gives us every single day as you make a difference in your communities and your churches and proclaim the good news of Jesus Christ. May we never miss what God is doing in our midst through the power and the presence of the Holy Spirit!
 

General Conference Resources

General Conference Guide

An important resource for delegates, church members and journalists, this guide contains information about the conference schedule, the legislative process and historical background. Download the guide: English | Français | Português
 

Schedule

The General Conference meets for 10 days beginning Tuesday, April 23 with a pause for Sabbath on Sunday, April 28. The days include legislative committee meetings, reports, addresses, plenary sessions, celebrations, and worship. During the first week delegates will largely meet spread out among 14 legislative committees to consider hundreds of petitions and proposals. Beginning Monday, April 29, delegates meet as a whole in plenary sessions to make decisions that will shape the future of The United Methodist Church.
View agenda here 
View abbreviated version here (this version indicates when there will be live stream)
 

Agenda Highlights

Agenda highlights include:

  • Opening Worship - Tuesday, April 23, 2 pm
  • Episcopal Address - Wednesday, April 24, 8:30 am 
  • Young People's Address - Wednesday, April 24, 10:55 am
  • Laity Address - Thursday, April 25, 8:45 am
  • Consecration of Deaconesses and Home Missioners for Lifetime Service - Monday, April 29, 8 am (being consecrated is Laurie Jo Upchurch from the South Georgia Conference)
  • Elections to Commission on General Conference, General Agencies, Judicial Council - Monday, April 29
  • Celebration of the 80th Anniversary of UMCOR - Tuesday, April 30
  • Closing Worship - Friday, May 3, 6 pm
     

Advance Edition Daily Christian Advocate

The Advance DCA contains all legislation submitted for consideration by the delegates at the upcoming General Conference. View ADCA
 

Following General Conference

There are multiple ways you can follow along with General Conference. 

  • Live Stream: General Conference will be live streamed at www.UMCGC.org/live
  • General Conference website: www.UMCGC.org
  • South Georgia Conference website: www.sgaumc.org/gc2020
  • Social Media: Follow the hashtag #UMCGC 
  • These newsletters updates! 
  • Daily Christian Advocate & Legislation Tracking: The Daily Christian Advocate is the most important reference for delegates of General Conference (and those closely following the session). It contains daily transcripts of the conference proceedings, news stories and features, and daily summaries of legislative committee actions. General Conference delegates and first reserves receive free access to the website DailyChristianAdvocate.org. Others may access the site for a one-time fee of $49.99, which allows you to create an account and have ongoing access through General Conference, including legislation tracking. View the DCA   

Prayer


Photo illustration by Kathleen Barry, United Methodist Communications

Praying for delegates, bishops, speakers, and all those who lead and attend the General Conference sessions is a powerful way to participate. Pray for God to guide the General Conference’s decisions, for Christ to lead us into the future, and for the Holy Spirit to empower us to go on toward perfection in our love of God and one another. Join with others from South Georgia as we pause to pray each day 4:01 pm. View daily prayers here.
 

South Georgia Delegation

Know your delegates. Personalize your prayers by lifting up the delegates and leaders from our Annual Conference by name. The job of a delegate is time-consuming and sometimes stressful. Many lay delegates are giving up vacation time to be at General Conference, and the clergy are spending an extended time away from their congregations. Both are away from their home and families. Lift them, their families, and their churches in prayer. Check out the conference Facebook page for delegate spotlights to get to know the South Georgia delegation even better!

Members of the delegation, and the legislative committees on which they will serve, include:

Laity
General Conference:
Richard Shinhoster || Legislative Committee: Financial Administration
Allison Lindsey || Legislative Committee: Faith and Order
Patsy Thomas || Legislative Committee: Judicial Administration
Karen Forrester || Legislative Committee: Discipleship

Jurisdictional Conference:
John Ray (alternate to GC)
Denise Rooks (alternate to GC)
Dana Goshorn
Scott Cleaveland

Alternates:
Scott Lewis
Mark Allen

Clergy
General Conference:
Doreen Smalls || Legislative Committee: Ordained Ministry
Scott Hagan || Legislative Committee: Church and Society 2
Jimmy Asbell || Legislative Committee: Conferences
Ben Martin || Legislative Committee: General Administration

Jurisdictional Conference:
Michael Culbreth (alternate to GC)
Tony Crosby (alternate to GC)
Stephen Grantham
Ben Gosden

Alternate:
Precious Hawkins
 

Top Tools for Sharing with Your Local Church

#1 GC by the Numbers Infographic - This one-page infographic provides a quick snapshot of General Conference by the numbers.



#2 The Road to General Conference Infographic - Gain a better understanding of The UMC with this information detailing the church's structure from the local church, to the district, through the annual conferences and beyond with the infographics below. (4 pages)



#3 Video: What is the General Conference? 
This video provides a quick overview of General Conference and how it serves the denomination. Watch video

#4 Quick facts to reference: 

  • General Conference is the top policy-making body of The United Methodist Church, which meets once every four years. 
  • However, because of the pandemic, the last regular session of General Conference was nearly eight years ago. 
  • General Conference is the only body that can speak for the whole United Methodist Church. 
  • General Conference has the authority to make revisions to the denomination’s Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions.
  • The conference can revise church law, as well as adopt resolutions on current moral, social, public policy, and economic issues. It also approves plans and budgets for church-wide programs.
  • During the first week our delegates will largely meet in legislative committees to consider hundreds of petitions and proposals. During the second week delegates meet as a whole in plenary sessions to make decisions that will shape the future of The United Methodist Church. 
  • There are 862 delegates from around the world, half clergy and half laity. Of the elected delegates, 55.9% are from the U.S., 32% from Africa, 6% from the Philippines, 4.6% from Europe (including Russia) and the remainder from concordat churches that have close ties to The United Methodist Church.
  • We have 8 delegates from the South Georgia Annual Conference participating and voting at General Conference. 
  • There are 1,099 total petitions before the General Conference.
  • In a focused effort to prepare for General Conference session, the South Georgia Conference is taking part in a month-long Conference-wide prayer initiative, “Hear Our Prayers," where we are pausing to pray each day at 4:01 pm. 
  • This is a wonderful opportunity for Methodists around the world to come together to celebrate our shared mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.