General Conference News Update

May 17, 2016

What happened Tuesday:

On the surface it was a normal day. Lots of legislation was passed, most of it on consent calendars. Some didn't pass. A committee will begin working on a new hymnal for the denomination; there will not be term limits for U.S. bishops; and Guaranteed appointments will continue .

United Methodist Men shared a report of their ministry; ecumenical officers were welcomed and recognized.

But behind the scenes there was a buzz. It started the night before when social media shared rumors of the Council of Bishops proposing a path toward church division. Then Bishop Bruce Ough, President of the Council of Bishops made an unscheduled address to the General Conference to say, no, they were not, and could not propose such legislation. Later a motion from the floor asked the bishops to deliberate and return with a non-binding proposal for a direction forward.

Another referral was the proposal to create a new committee focused on "saving the church." The plan would move $20 million from the world service fund to a new committee. Many observe that the committee replicates functions of many existing church agencies. The item was referred to the Judicial Council to test if it would be constitutional.

And here's a link to the UMNS wrap-up for May 17.

Also, our friends in the Pacific Northwest have a wonderful news site.

Greg Nelson, Director of Communications

Church hanging onto unity despite cracks in the walls

Bishop Bruce Ough acknowledged the pain and anger that has been bubbling up at the 2016 United Methodist General Conference over the full inclusion of LGBTQ people, but said the Council of Bishops supports church unity.

Social media rumors before his announcement indicated the bishops were going to create a special commission to explore the church’s differences and hold a meeting in 2018 to discuss schism.

That is not correct, Ough said. However, he did say the bishops were not in unity with each other. Read the rest of this United Methodist News Service story.

Green light for new hymnal project

The United Methodist Church is on track to get its first new hymnal since 1989, and this one will be Internet-cloud based and print-on-demand — the first high-tech hymnal for a mainline denomination.

General Conference 2016 approved on a consent calendar Tuesday, May 17, a petition authorizing the creation of a 15-member Hymnal Revision Committee.

That was the big green light needed for the United Methodist Publishing House and Discipleship Ministries to move forward with the new collection. The two agencies share responsibility for the hymnal. Read the rest of this United Methodist News Service story.

Term limits for bishops fails

Term limits for United Methodist bishops got strong support in a vote at General Conference 2016, but fell short of the two-thirds majority needed to change the church constitution.

The vote on May 17 was 482 in favor of term limits and 332 opposed.

The Association of Annual Conference Lay leaders introduced the petition, arguing that lifetime tenure for bishops in the United States “inevitably invites abuse of power and creates a mistrust with the local churches.” Read the rest of this United Methodist News Service story.

Guaranteed appointment survives

PORTLAND, Ore. (UMNS) — Some clergy-related petitions have passed at General Conference 2016, and others are likely to be adopted, having made it onto the consent calendar. But a petition for "early ordination" and another that would have removed the constitutional bar to ending guaranteed appointment for ordained elders failed in committee. Read the rest of this United Methodist News Service Report.

Archives:

Pre-Conference:
Did you miss Update #1? Read it here.
Did you miss Update #2? Read it here.
Looking for Update #3? Read it here.
And update #4. Read it here.

Updates during Conference:
May 10 update, May 11 update, May 12 update. May 13 update, May 14 update

Week two:
May 16,