COMBINED MA BOLA SEMINAR AND CONFERENCE 2017 HARBEN HOUSE HOTEL – MILTON KEYNES

1. COMBINED MA BOLA SEMINAR AND CONFERENCE 2017HARBEN HOUSE HOTEL – MILTON KEYNES FRIDAY 3 TO SUNDAY 5 NOVEMBER 2017

2. TOPIC GENERAL CONFERENCE 2016 RESOLUTIONS

3. 1. Introduction The General Conference, which meet once every four years, is the supreme policy making body of our denomination. It has full legislative power over all matters distinctively connectional. It has no executive or administrative power. The major business of General Conference includes legislation where hundreds, if not thousands of petitions go through analysis, discussion, debate and voting. The 2016 General Conference was held in May in Oregon USA and a total of 854 delegates from across the global connection were in attendance.

4. 2. Sources of Legislation • Primary sources of legislation are petitions and proposals from church agencies and organizations. Petitions must be submitted 180 days before the opening of the conference. Any organization, ordained minister or lay member of the church may petition the General Conference. The bulk of General Conference business is conducted in legislative committees. Each committee receives petitions and proposals, debates them, and determines whether to approve, amend, combine or reject them for recommendation to the full body of General Conference.

5. Sources of legislation cont…………. • All proposed legislation-from individuals, organizations, church wide agencies and annual conferences-is printed in the Advance Daily Christian Advocate. • Petitions from individuals, local churches, annual conferences and general agencies are given numbers and assigned to one of 13 legislative committees. Each delegate serves on a committee, and delegates spend most of the first four days in committee meetings. Each legislative committee deals with petitions related to series of paragraphs from The Book of Discipline. Petitions related to The Book of Resolutions are sorted by subject. A legislative committee can recommend to adopt, reject or refer a petition. A petition that is ready for plenary action is called a "calendar item"; the item is assigned a number and printed in the Daily Christian Advocate.

6. 3. Who has the right to write or petition the General Conference? • “Any organization, clergy member, or lay member of The United Methodist Church may petition the General Conference….” (¶507, The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church)

7. 3. Legislative Process Below is a short summary of the legislative process: • Petitions are sent by agencies, conferences, churches, and individuals. • The petitions secretary assigns petition numbers. The numbers indicate the legislative committee assignment, the chronological order, the Discipline or Book of Resolutions reference and the source. • Petitions are printed in the Advance Edition of the Daily Christian Advocate (ADCA).

8. Legislative Processes cont………… • The Committee on Reference reviews assignments by the petitions secretary. They may combine petitions and make new assignments to legislative committees as deemed necessary. • Legislative committees review petitions and make recommendations to plenary session. • Reports are sent to Daily Christian Advocate (DCA). Copy is returned to committee officers for approval. Copy is sent to the General Conference secretary for a calendar number prior to being printed in the DCA.

9. Legislative Processes cont………… • Plenary session acts upon calendar item. • The action is printed in the Book of Discipline or the Book of Resolutions. The DCA becomes the official journal of the General Conference. Each petition from an individual, local church, annual conference, general agency or other group receives a number and is assigned to a legislative committee. Each delegate serves on a committee and spends most of the first four days of General Conference in committee meetings.

10. Legislative Processes cont………… Each legislative committee deals with petitions related to a series of paragraphs from the Book of Discipline. Petitions related to the Book of Resolutions are sorted by subject. A legislative committee can recommend adoption, rejection or referral of a petition to a plenary session. That recommendation is called a “calendar item.” The item is assigned a number and printed in the Daily Christian Advocate, which will also be available in electronic publication format for tablet devices.

11. Legislative Processes cont………… If a proposal has no financial implications, seeks no change in the constitution and receives fewer than 10 negative votes in the legislative committee, it goes on a “consent calendar.” A vote of 20 delegates is needed to remove it from the consent calendar. If it is not removed, it is voted on with other noncontroversial items, which conserves precious floor time in the plenary session.

12. Some of the key highlights of GC 2016 a. Rule 44 Turned Down • Among a number of new rules in the Rules Of Order was rule number 44. This rule sought to bring together certain petitions which were deemed to be best decided through a group discernment process. It was interesting to note that all petitions on homosexuality were part of those deemed to best go through this discernment process. Delegate voted this rule out.

13. Key highlights cont………………. b. Petitions on restructuring voted down • Petitions which looked more like a follow up to the 2012 Call To Action which brought proposals on restructuring the church were also voted down

14. Key highlights cont………………. • Bishops asked to give direction on the homosexuality issue • The explosive issue on human sexuality eventually rested in the hands of the Council of Bishops to provide direction. This saw the birth of the Special Commission on Way Forward. A special session of the General Conference will sit in 2019 on this single agenda as this special commission will pronounce its recommendations. So far the Special Commission has set several times and from the general comments taking rounds it would appear their main focus is on achieving unity for the church rather than separation. The current language in the BOD remains in force.

15. Key highlights cont………………. d. Global Book Of Discipline • The Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters presented the first draft of the first half of the proposed Global Book Of Discipline. This was accepted as information and this work carries on into the current quadrennial. A final proposal will be presented for adoption at the 2020 General Conference.

16. Key highlights cont………………. e. Five New Bishops For Africa • The recommendation by the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters to create five new Episcopal Areas in Africa was well received by the delegates. Countries to be considered were DRC, Mozambique, Zimbabwe, Burundi, and Nigeria . • A further recommendation was passed to have a comprehensive plan thatlooks at boundaries of both annual conferences and central conferences with the major aim of making them better positioned to deliver their mandate.

17. Key highlights cont………………. f. Constitutional Amendments • Many constitutional amendments failed to find their way to the plenary as did hundreds of other petitions. Only a few constitutional amendments got the positive vote of the general conference which required a two thirds majority. In order for these amendments to effect change in the BOD they have to get another two thirds majority vote of all the annual conferences in the global connection.