Fewer General Conference Delegates?

May 11, 2007
Newscope

Future gatherings of the once-every-four-years General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which writes the UMC Book of Discipline, could be smaller than the nearly 1,000-delegate conferences of recent decades.

The Commission on General Conference will propose limiting the number of delegates to between 500 and 600. The proposal, besides having financial benefits, also meets a need for “creating better conversation among fewer people,” said Gail Murphy-Geiss, commission chairperson from Colorado. The commission is also proposing that petitions to General Conference go through church entities. Currently individuals may submit petitions on their own, and that has resulted in some frivolous and offensive content, the commission said.

Divisive UM Electoral System

April 13, 2007
United Methodist Reporter

The present system of electing delegates to our General and Jurisdictional Conferences has degenerated to the point that little distinguishes it from the political process in secular society. Clergy and lay caucuses and affinity groups, formed around issues of gender, race, age, ministerial orders, social issues, and theological orthodoxy, compete for representation. These groups began out of a concern for justice or an acceptable expression of the Christian faith. The rise of caucuses and affinity groups, however, has created its own evils. Whenever the basis for decision-making is reduced to the myopic lens for a single criterion – no matter how noble – the needs of the whole suffer from a narrowness of vision. I withdrew as a candidate for the episcopal office [bishop] because I was not prepared to lead a church so fractured. – Rev. Eric McKinney of the Central Texas Conference and a three-time delegate.