The plenary session on Day 3 of General Conference produced two historic moments: the passage of a constitutional amendment that aims to put The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions on equal footing and the approval of four Eurasia conferences’ official departure from the denomination.
Bishop Eduard Khegay, episcopal leader of the Eurasia Area, gave a moving farewell speech following the passage of a petition that will enable four Eurasian annual conferences to become autonomous. He expressed gratitude to the denomination, using the phrase for “thank you” in Russian: “Bolshoe spasibo.”
A green light for regionalization
General Conference has now passed much of the legislation that aims to give The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions equal standing in decision-making.
In what outgoing Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton called “a historic day for our church,” delegates voted 586 to 164 for an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that will now go before annual conference voters for potential ratification.
A constitutional amendment requires at least a two-thirds vote at General Conference; the regionalization amendment received 78% of the vote. To be ratified, the amendment also will need at least a two-thirds total vote of annual conference lay and clergy voters. Annual conferences are church regions consisting of multiple congregations and other ministries.
Regionalization has become United Methodist shorthand for a package of legislation that would restructure the denomination. Under the legislation, the U.S. and each central conference — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines — would become regional conferences with the same authority to adapt the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, for more missional effectiveness.
At present, only central conferences have that authority under the denomination’s constitution to adapt the Discipline as missional needs and different legal contexts require.
It is unusual for such consequential legislation to be voted on during the first week of General Conference. The Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters — a permanent General Conference committee with a majority of its membership from central conferences — gave its final approval to the eight petitions on regionalization in its April 21-22 meeting prior to the start of General Conference on April 23, opening up the proposals to be voted on so early in the assembly.
As part of the morning’s consent calendar, delegates also approved a measure titled “Regionalization and Contextualization of Marriage,” submitted by Michigan Conference
Bishop David Bard for the Council of Bishops. The new additions to the Book of Discipline allow central conferences to set their standards for marriage rites and clergy ordination.
The entire consent calendar that included the regionalization legislation and the Council of Bishops measure passed by a vote of 646 to 73.
“At the end of this General Conference, if anyone comes up to you and says, ‘We didn’t do anything at General Conference,’ (tell them) we just did,” Susan Brumbaugh, General Conference’s coordinator of the calendar, said after that first consent calendar vote.
Eurasia gets go-ahead to form own church
On the same day The United Methodist Church moved toward regionalization, General Conference delegates approved the exit of churches in one of its regions.
By a vote of 672 to 67, the delegates approved the departure of four Eurasian annual conferences — which encompasses churches in Russia, Belarus, Kyrgyzstan and Kazakhstan. Together, the four plan to form the autonomous Christian Methodist Church.
The Eurasian annual conferences — all led by Bishop Eduard Khegay, who is also leaving — have 66 churches in total. Altogether the conferences had 1,123 members as of 2017, according to the most recent data from the denomination’s General Council on Finance and Administration.
“Sisters and brothers, I stand in gratitude for your decision,” Khegay said after the vote.
While the departure won’t be final until next year, he acknowledged that this will be his and his delegations’ final General Conference.
“During my 12 years of episcopal ministry, I have faced many challenges and hardships in Eurasia — the East-West divide, the geopolitical struggles between superpowers, economic ups and downs and theological controversies,” he said. “But today I want to express my gratitude.”
Thursdays in Black service
Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling, episcopal leader of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences, led the morning worship service, which centered on the Thursdays in Black initiative.
Created by the World Council of Churches, Thursdays in Black encourages the wearing of black clothing on this one day of the week to witness to realities, like those reported by the United Nations, that globally an estimated 736 million women — almost one in three — have been subjected to physical and/or sexual intimate partner violence, non-partner sexual violence, or both, at least once in their life.
Easterling testified to the damage the church can do when it is silent on a harmful issue. She admonished the church to stop making the abused invisible, but rather minister to them and speak words of hope and healing.
As a survivor of domestic violence in a previous marriage, Easterling shared that when she entered the ministry, she was told not to reveal that part of her life.
“They said it would make me look weak and women in ministry already have enough battles to overcome,” she said.
Easterling raised her voice to tell all the women present who have suffered abuse: “You are fearfully and wonderfully made. … You are of sacred worth. You are resilient.”
She called on those present to find purpose and direction in Luke 4:16-21 and Jesus’ proclamation that “I have come to liberate, free, uplift and unbind and love. I have come to end oppression, bondage, domination, abuse and hate.”
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Revised Social Principles moves out of committee unchanged
Late in the day on April 25, the Revised Social Principles cleared the Church and Society 2 Committee with no changes, by a vote of 41 to 15. The legislation goes to plenary, where debate and efforts to amend are expected.
But the committee vote bodes well and thrilled one observer.
“I feel great,” said the Rev. Susan Henry-Crowe, former top executive of the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, which had a key role in a multiyear effort to craft a more concise globally applicable statement of the denomination’s position on various social issues.
The Rev. Todd Jordan, a Texas Conference delegate, was among the committee members voting to advance the Revised Social Principles without changes.
“I think (the vote) honors the countless hours of work that went into it,” he said.
Laity Address encourages church to ‘be like Nemo’
With the future of The United Methodist Church at stake, believers need to trust in God, be faithful witnesses and work together, said speakers during the April 25 Laity Address at General Conference.
Micheal Pope, vice president of the Association of Annual Conference Lay Leaders, said the church could learn from the example of Nemo, the main character in the Pixar animated film “Finding Nemo.”
In the film, Nemo is caught in a net with other fish, and convinced them they must all swim in the same direction to escape.
Likewise, United Methodists must work together to overcome the disaffiliation of about 25% of its U.S. congregations, Pope said.
Fellow presenter LaToya Redd Thompson, president of the lay leaders’ association, said that she believes God will bring new birth from the difficult circumstances the church is facing.
“Not only is nothing impossible for God, but together by grace, with faith, nothing is impossible for us,” she said. “He expects us, his disciples, to perform miracles because we can.”
Butler is a multimedia producer/editor for UM News. Contact him at newsdesk@umcom.org or 615-742-5470. Baltimore-Washington Conference director of communications Melissa Lauber and staff from UM News contributed to this report.
