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.

The Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters — a permanent General Conference committee with a majority of its membership from central conferences — submitted the eight petitions of the Worldwide Regionalization proposal. The standing committee, which met April 21-22, gave its final approval to the legislation before the start of General Conference on April 23.

That teed up the proposals for action by the full General Conference plenary in its first week — a big change from previous sessions when General Conference typically does not take up major proposals until its second week.

Earlier in the morning plenary, delegates approved four of the eight Worldwide Regionalization proposals on the consent calendar. The consent calendar includes legislation passed overwhelmingly in General Conference committees that only requires a majority and does not have financial implications.

“I stand before you this morning full of hope and also excited,” said Christine Schneider in introducing the constitutional amendment.

She is a reserve delegate from the Switzerland-France-North Africa Conference and member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters that submitted the Worldwide Regionalization proposal.

She acknowledged that the legislation before the General Conference delegates was the work of multiple United Methodists around the globe. That includes the standing committee, the Connectional Table (which coordinates denomination-wide ministries) and members of the Christmas Covenant, a grassroots group of United Methodists in the central conferences who saw regionalization as the best way to promote unity.

“This is a result of excellent collaboration of people from all walks of life, of all parts of our connection,” Schneider said.

Under the amendment that passed General Conference, each regional conference would have the authority to:

• Establish and publish a regional Discipline with legislation and provision pertaining to church structures within its boundaries, including qualifications and educational requirements of clergy and specialized lay ministries.
• Set standards of character and other qualifications for the admission of lay members.

• Establish and publish a regional hymnal and ritual of church, including for marriage and burial. The rites approved would need to be in line with core doctrines of The United Methodist Church and in accordance with local laws.
  
• Allow the annual conferences to adopt structures adequate to their mission while upholding General Conference-mandated structures.

The amendment also requires regional conferences to recognize annual conferences as the basic bodies of the church, especially on all matters relating to the character and conference relations of its clergy members.

The amendment requires regional conferences to be in line with national laws and not to stray from the Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith that contain the denomination’s core belief in Christ’s resurrection, the Trinity and the sacraments of baptism and communion.

Used from United Methodist News Service