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General Conference 2008Updates on General Conference for
May 3, 2008 |
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General Conference 2008Updates on General Conference for
May 3, 2008 |
Photographs and video also are available at this site
| For Hoosier United Methodist information about General Conference 2008, log on to www.inareaumc.org. | A General Conference Daily Prayer Guide can be found at www.inareaumc.org/2008_Conferences/GC_daily_prayer_guide.pdf. |
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| UM NeXus at www.umnexus.org/blog/ | The United Methodist Reporter at www.UMportal.org |
Delegates end General Conference with a flurry of resolutions
For May 2, 2008
Written by United Methodist News Service
Edited by Daniel R. Gangler, Indiana Area United Methodist Communication
Complete stories with pictures can be found at
www.gc2008.umc.org.
FORT WORTH, Texas (UMNS) — New resolutions adopted by United Methodists touch on a variety of social justice issues, including a living wage, hate crimes and the use of torture.
The resolutions were among the consent calendar items approved by the denomination’s General Conference during its April 23-May 2 legislative event at the Fort Worth Convention Center.
The impact of globalization is addressed in a resolution on “Global Living Wage”, which calls upon “all members of the global United Methodist Church to work in partnership with persons, communities and governments everywhere around the world to bring about the creation of conditions that encompass fundamental workers’ rights, fair wages, a safe and healthy workplace, reasonable hours of work, decent living standards, support for community infrastructure and commitment to community economic development.”
Changes in welfare reform since the 2004 General Conference include the Work Opportunity and Personal Responsibility Act, commonly known as Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) Act, which has a heightened focus on the work mandate as a condition for benefits.
The approved updating of the denomination’s resolution on “Principles of Welfare Reform” calls on United Methodists to urge state and county governments “to create programs that assist current and former welfare recipients in making the transition from dependence onto economic health, including: training, public sector job creation, child care and resources for parenting.”
Concerns about “The Girl Child” led to a petition advocating the church’s active support “to the empowerment of girls in all aspects of life.” The focus includes health, education, financial literacy and family environment. “Develop strategies and action plans to build girls’ stakes in their societies and to recognize their rights and citizenship at an early age. …,” the petition says.
A petition on “Grieving and Repenting from Acts of Hate and Violence” calls both for education and a variety of action steps, including taking strong nonviolent action in opposition to hate groups, promoting diversity dialogue and programs and encouraging victims of hate crimes to speak up. “Evangelize those individuals who would choose to be a part of hate groups or who commit acts of hate and violence individually and show them the compassion and saving grace of Jesus Christ,” the petition says.
Another petition on “Resisting Hate” calls for biblically-based resources for young people and adults addressing the historic and systemic roots of hate, along with resources “to help United Methodists analyze the language of hate among groups that use religious language to justify hatred and bigotry.”
The denomination’s annual conferences are asked to advocate for comprehensive state hate-crime laws, develop databases of information about local and state hate groups and create a task force to develop strategies “to address actions of the media that use or condone hate speech, stereotypes or racial profiling.”
An adopted resolution on “The Abolition of Torture” requires The United Methodist Church “to publicly condemn and oppose torture wherever it occurs through legislative and other means.” That includes advocating for the ratification of the Convention Against Torture, fully supporting the International Criminal Court and organizing or joining events such as the United Nations International Day to Remember the Victims of Torture on June 26. “United Methodists should seek access to places of detention and interrogation centers in order to ensure that persons held are not mistreated,” it says.
Another resolution on “Opposition to Torture” states that the Geneva Conventions should be applied “to all enemy soldiers” and supports “the humane treatment with due process for all combatants held by both government and non-government forces anywhere in the world.” It also calls for “judicial review and legislative oversight over executive branch operations relating to counter terrorism and domestic surveillance programs, both classified and publicly acknowledged.”
The United Methodist Church will continue to “sit at the table” and retain its 35-year membership with the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice. In a May 2 vote of 416-384, the 2008 General Conference affirmed continued membership of the denomination’s Board of Church and Society and the Women’s Division of the Board of Global Ministries in the organization.
Fourteen denominations including the Episcopal Church, Presbyterian Church (USA), United Church of Christ, Unitarian Universalism, Conservative Judaism and others are also full members of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.
The United Methodist Church is urging justice for migrants worldwide and reform of U.S. immigration laws. Delegates adopted resolutions covering both global migration and immigration issues in the United States.
U.S. immigration. The U.S. domestic resolution calls for “full protection of all workers, which includes the opportunity to gain legal status for all migrants.” It also urges U.S. lawmakers to ensure that immigrant laws do not rip apart families.
General Conference also added a new section on “Rights of Immigrants” to the denomination’s Social Principles. It states in part, “We affirm the right of all persons to equal opportunities for employment, access to housing, health care, education and freedom from social discrimination.” The global economic system has led to migration and many challenges for migrants.
The resolution, “Welcoming the Migrant to the United States,” was written to incorporate six other resolutions that currently appear in the church’s Book of Resolutions. Amendments in legislative committee further incorporated proposed actions dealing with immigration.
A third resolution, proposed by Metodistas Associados Representando la Causa de Hispano-Americanos (MARCHA), addressed both U.S. immigration reform and the church’s responsibility to ensure fair treatment to immigrants.
“The broken immigration system in the United States and the xenophobic responses to migrants reflect the former social order,” according to “Welcoming the Migrant to the United States.” It states: “The calling of the people of God is to advocate for the creation of a new immigration system that reflects Jesus’ beloved community.”
Global migration. The “Global Migration and the Quest for Justice” resolution stresses both the economic needs that contribute to massive movements of people today and the difficulties encountered by migrants. It states, “While money and products easily flow across borders, the movement of people is increasingly restricted, leading to concentrations of the poor along borders and, often, to the building of literal and figurative walls of exclusion.”
The resolution commits the church to help all types of migrants and to engage in advocacy on their behalf. It urges investigation of the causes of displacement and marginalization and calls for the preparation of “educational resources for the achievement of these objectives.”
Delegates rejected two petitions dealing with clergy ineffectiveness and guaranteed appointments. The delegates followed the recommendations of the ministry and higher education legislative committee and voted 824-25 to not amend paragraph 334.1 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline. The petitions asked that bishops appoint an ineffective pastor to less than full-time service.
Because the petitions were placed on a consent calendar, delegates also voted on April 30 to reject an effort involving clergy evaluations. The legislation would have allowed a district superintendent to initiate changing the pastor’s conference relationship after three evaluations found a pastor to be ineffective and not likely to become effective through training and counseling.
The General Conference also voted to keep the Clergy Retirement Security Program which was approved by the 2004 General Conference. The new pension plans for clergy and employees of United Methodist agencies became effective in January 2007. They provide a program that follows “the best practices of major corporations” by combining the characteristics of a defined benefit and a defined contribution plan.
In a vote of 763-38, delegates declined to rescind the Clergy Retirement Security Program, which was changed from the Ministerial Pension Plan.
Meeting on the evening of May 1, the top court of The United Methodist Church decided to defer two requests for rulings that came from the floor of the 2008 General Conference. The Judicial Council said both issues would require more study and would become docket items for its October session.
One question was whether pending legislation would automatically trigger the designation of the United States as a “regional conference” of the church. The legislation, Petition 80809, would replace the word “central” with the word “regional” in Paragraph 10, Article III, of the church’s Constitution. The legislation was approved by the legislative committee on Conferences, and in plenary by a vote of 593-295.
The second request deals with legislation relating to the status of local pastors when they retire. That legislation, which started as Petition 80004, allows a retiring local pastor to elect to be recognized as either a lay person or a “retired local pastor.” It was passed by the full assembly as part of the consent calendar.
The request for a decision asks if the new legislation is in conflict with Paragraph 602 of the 2004 Book of Discipline, which outlines the composition of the annual conference.
The Judicial Council will hold an orientation session in July in Chicago, followed by its next regularly scheduled meeting Oct. 22-25 in Minneapolis.
With his country in the midst of political and economic turmoil, Bishop Eben Nhiwatiwa, episcopal leader of the Zimbabwe Area, said that the role of United Methodists in Zimbabwe is to continue to encourage a spirit of peace.
For 11 years, the Baltimore-Washington Conference has been a resource on which Nhiwatiwa can depend. On April 30, during the 2008 General Conference, the two annual conferences signed a new covenant to extend their relationship through 2012.
The covenant states the two conferences will focus on issues such as theological training, community and economic development, young adult ministries, preaching, biblical studies and leadership in the Zimbabwe Episcopal Area.
Schol said the new covenant would extend the work and relationship-building that has occurred since 1997. In 2007, the Baltimore-Washington Conference sent a 13-member team of clergy and laity to Zimbabwe to teach church leadership and community development strategies and skills to about 300 pastors. The team also distributed more than 7,000 insecticide-treated bed nets, as part of the Nothing But Nets anti-malaria campaign.
Following a declaration that “the budget defines who we are and what we believe” as the church, the General Conference approved a $642 million denominational spending plan for the next four years built around four areas of mission and ministry.
“(The budget) is our mission statement of what God is calling us as people of The United Methodist Church to be about in the world,” said Bishop Mary Ann Swenson, president of the church’s finance agency, in presenting the proposed budget on May 2, the final day of the 10-day legislative assembly.
“We are the cup from which will flow the funds for mission and ministry of The United Methodist Church,” said Bishop John Hopkins, chairman of the Connectional Table, a churchwide leadership group that collaborated to develop the budget with the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA), the Council of Bishops and the church’s 13 denominational agencies.
With minimal discussion, the delegates approved the budget by a vote of 750-28 and later approved the “apportionment formula” by which it is funded through money requested of the church’s 63 U.S. annual conferences and their local congregations. Less than 2 percent of the money placed in local church offering plates goes to fund denominational ministries and administration.
Hopkins said the budget was developed to strike a balance between the needs and ministries of congregations and annual conferences “with the calling that God is making to our denomination to be out in the world.”
Focusing the church’s resources. The budget represents a 4.8 percent increase over the 2005-2008 spending plan of $612.5 million approved by the 2004 General Conference. The $642 million budget translates into a 1.2 percent increase over each of the next four years. Church finance leaders acknowledge this does not keep pace with projections for inflation, but say the amount is sufficient.
For the first time, the budget was developed on an outcome-based model shaped around the denomination’s four areas of focus for the immediate future:
This is the last wrap- up of General Conference. For complete reports and stories about the 2008 General Conference, log on to www.gc2008.umc.org.
