Dear friends,
In this second Tidings from Thomas about the upcoming General Conference of the United Methodist Church, I offer a brief discussion on an issue that will likely occupy a great deal of the General Conference’s time – regionalization. While this is likely not the issue on which the media will focus, it could have profound implications for how the United Methodist Church (UMC) will function in the future.
Before unpacking the proposed legislation, it is helpful to review the existing polity of the UMC. Within the United States, the church is organized into five geographical jurisdictions. We are in the Southeastern Jurisdiction. Outside of the USA, the church is organized into central jurisdictions. Each of the American jurisdictions is autonomous in that we elect our own bishops who oversee the church within jurisdictional bounds. Jurisdictions are further organized into Annual Conferences, such as the South Carolina Conference.
The proposed legislation regarding regionalism would create one large region for the USA, which may or may not be further divided into jurisdictions. There are varying versions of regionalization legislation being put forward, but one thing they have in common is an attempt to allow for more culturally contextualized church practice. For example, African conferences and American conferences could have greater freedom to adapt ordination standards for their particular ministry context. Like other pieces of legislation, this will all go through legislative committees and can be amended on the floor of the conference, but this is my understanding of the legislation in broad strokes. How and if regionalization legislation is passed will likely affect what happens next on issues relating to human sexuality. I will write more about this issue later.
By way of reminder, General Conference is from April 23 to May 3. If you want to take a deeper dive, this link will take you to the official General Conference website: https://www.resourceumc.org/en/churchwide/general-conference-2020
Let us continue to pray for God’s will to be accomplished through General Conference and through the United Methodist Church. We serve a mighty God who has great things in store for us. If we do our best to be faithful followers of Jesus, our ever-faithful God will see us through whatever comes.
Yours in Christ,