Key points:
- Bishops presiding at General Conference can consult a professional parliamentarian.
- For this legislative assembly, that person is Maurice S. Henderson, a past president of the National Association of Parliamentarians.
- He also is available to advise the chairs of legislative committees at General Conference.
When bishops presiding at General Conference need advice, they can turn to Maurice S. Henderson.
He is a past president of the National Association of Parliamentarians — the first African American to hold that office — and has many years of helping organizations run meetings right.
In Charlotte, Henderson is the consultant on parliamentary matters, seated near the presiding bishop. Look for a well-dressed man, most likely wearing a bow tie.
“It’s kind of my signature,” he said.
This is his first big United Methodist event, and the stakes are high. But he was feeling OK in the early going.
“Nothing has come my way so far that I’ve not been able to handle or answer,” he said.
Henderson, 54, was born and raised in Detroit, and still resides in the area. His mother was a police department secretary, and his father worked on the assembly line at Ford Motor Company.
He belonged to his high school chapter of Business Professionals of America, where he first learned parliamentary procedure basics and gained experience presiding at chapter meetings.
“When we knew we had to use (parliamentary procedure), I took it seriously and taught myself a lot,” Henderson said.
Later, he served on another organization’s board and became even more motivated.
“They weren’t doing things correctly,” he said.
Henderson, who holds degrees from Western Michigan University and Wayne State University, kept studying parliamentary procedure on his own, but also sought out mentors. He took and passed exams for various levels of certification with the National Association of Parliamentarians.
General Conference photos
He eventually reached the top level — professional registered parliamentarian. He has held various offices in the national association, serving as president from 2011 to 2013.
While Henderson’s day job is director for Michigan Business Professionals of America — the same organization he joined in high school — he has worked part-time as a professional parliamentarian for 24 years.
Past clients include the National PTA, the Michigan Nurses Association, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America and the Church of the Nazarene.
He notes that the polarization in U.S. society has led to more work for him, as groups try to minimize conflict in meetings.
“I could go full-time (as a parliamentarian),” Henderson said.
The 2016 United Methodist General Conference in Portland, Oregon, had contentious moments in plenary. Some were over bishops’ presiding style and rulings. The conference asked the Commission on General Conference and the secretary of General Conference to explore using a professional parliamentarian to coach bishops for the next such gathering.
Leonard Young, another big figure in the National Association of Parliamentarians, served in that role for the special 2019 General Conference in St. Louis. He died in 2022.
Henderson was chosen for this General Conference after doing online parliamentary training with United Methodist bishops in January.
“We’ve already benefited from his wisdom and expertise,” Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton said in introducing Henderson to delegates during the April 23 opening plenary in Charlotte.
Henderson, who knows all about Robert’s Rules of Order, had to do a crash course in the Plan of Organization and Rules of Order for General Conference.
Along with helping bishops in plenary, he has been on call this week to advise delegates chairing legislative committees.
“If they get their questions answered early in the process, we can avoid a lot of chaos and confusion that could otherwise reach the floor,” he said.
Plenary action so far has been limited, but the bishops with whom Henderson has worked have impressed him with their parliamentary skills.
He will be available through the May 3 end of General Conference to help with hard calls — and to tamp down the anxiety that goes with presiding.
“None of us knows at any given time what any given delegate will say at a microphone or what motion they will make,” Henderson said. “The biggest fear of any presiding officer is the unknown.”
Hodges is a Dallas-based writer for United Methodist News. Jack Harnish and the Michigan Conference contributed. Contact Hodges at 615-742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free Daily or Weekly Digests.
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