United Methodist Church
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The Global Methodist Church has a Constitution
The Constitution of The Global Methodist Church has been approved by their Convening General Conference today, September 24th, 2024. My highlights:.It begins with a naming of its place in the church universal under the saving grace of Jesus Christ. It roots in the Methodist tradition of organizing under a common discipline. In Article II it Continue reading
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Q&A With Dr J for the GMC Conference #1
Welcome to Global Methodist General Conference Q&A no. 1. I’ll answer the questions you gave me to the best of my knowledge and ability. 1)It seems like they are voting on things really fast without discussion, are they not allowing for discussion on purpose or did they have meetings ahead of time? If you are Continue reading
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How the change in funding bans impacts local churches
Petition 20191, which passed at General Conference, deletes all prohibitions for annual, jurisdictional, central, or General conference board, agency, committee, commission, or council giving to pro LGBTQIA+ organizations. It replaces it with a prohibition on giving to anti-LGBTQIA+ entities for these same entities. A couple questions came my way. Question 1: I am a conservative, Continue reading
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Request for a Declaratory Decision from The Judicial Council Regarding ¶ 511.1.a-b
Our first request for a declaratory decision to be sent to the Judicial Council!!! Ian Carlos Urriola has requested a declaratory decision on whether the General Conference is violating ¶ 511.1.a-b. This is a request to determine since no youth are seated at General Conference, and the nominations for the General Commission on the General Continue reading
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Dakotas Conference Q&A Manipulation
I was messaged several times yesterday and now today about this event. The Dakotas Conference had Q&A sessions with delegates and their responses were consolidated and share via a Google Doc. However, there were still editing abilities available to those who viewed it. Someone viewed it, edited it with false information that seems to have Continue reading
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United Methodist Monday: Election of Delegates to General, Jurisdictional, and Central Conferences by Annual Conferences
¶¶ 34-36 Outline the requirements for election of delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conference. Essentially, annual conferences elect their representative delegates to General, Jurisdictional and Central Conference (Jurisdictional is a region inside the US, Central is a region outside the US). They elect based on a ration determined by the General Church. General Conference delegates Continue reading
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“The Annual Conference is the basic body of the church…”
I do a regular Monday post about United Methodist Polity on my FB Page, but will be posting it here as well (and on the YouTube Channel) from now on. ¶33 is quite possibly my favorite section of the Constitution of The United Methodist Church. The paragraph solidifies our polity of connectionalism as one that Continue reading
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Let them Lobby
This topic is about a month old, but I wanted to mull it over a bit before responding. According to UMNews.org the Wesley Covenant Association and Good News Movement, among others, will be lobbying at General Conference in April. They will mostly be working to convince folks to join the Global Methodist Church (which formed Continue reading
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Judicial Council Fall 2023 Docket
As the UMC keeps on moving, the next thing we have coming up is the Judicial Council Meeting. The Judicial Council is our Supreme Court. It decides on matters of church law of decisions of bishops, actions of conferences (charge, annual, jurisdictional, central, and general), and other issues of the church. The group of nine Continue reading
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Updates on Trial for Bishop Carcaño
(An earlier version of this appeared on my Facebook page on July 13, 2023) In United Methodist News in the past week, a Trial Date has been set for Bishop Carcaño, who has been under suspension for over a year..This trial is a church trial, not a US court trial. It has similarities, but is Continue reading
Jonathan LeMaster-Smith 