Bishops announce ratification of constitutional amendments

WASHINGTON (UMCom) - The United Methodist Council of Bishops, of which Indiana Bishop Mike Coyner is a member, recently announced that all eight amendments to the church's constitution passed by the 2004 General Conference have been ratified by the annual conferences. The new amendments will become effective immediately.

The process for amending the Constitution of The United Methodist Church requires a two-thirds majority vote of General Conference delegates. Annual conferences must then ratify the amendments by a two-thirds affirmative vote. The results of the voting are reported to the Council on Bishops, where they are verified and counted. The results are then reviewed and certified by the Council of Bishops. The North and South Annual Conferences voted on these amendments in June 2005.

The vote counts for each of the amendments were as follows:

Amendment I, which specifies that a fair and open process be utilized to elect General Conference delegates: 36,323 yes; 1,098 no
Amendment II, which adds home missioners to the classifications over which General Conference has authority to define and fix powers and duties: 36,614 yes; 920 no
Amendment III, which deletes an obsolete phrase: 36,554 yes; 830 no
Amendment IV, which guarantees that the person responsible for promoting work of the mission agency of The United Methodist Church is a member of the annual conference: 36,134 yes; 1,316 no
Amendment V, which adds home missioners under Episcopal appointment to the membership of the annual conference: 36,350 yes; 1,124 no
Amendment VI, which supports the addition of the conference director of lay speaking ministries to the list of lay members of the annual conference: 36,270 yes; 1,100 no
Amendment VII, which provides a definition of clergy members of the annual conference: 26,211 yes; 11,005 no
Amendment VIII, which allows for adoption of enabling legislation at the same General Conference as the amendment is voted, contingent upon required ratification by the various annual conferences: 32,901 yes; 4,555 no

To see the amendments in full, log on to http://archives.umc.org/interior.asp?mid=10625.

Last updated on 25 Apr 2008

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