General Conference to consider 1,564 petitions

United Methodist News Service
General Conference delegates are now wading through 1,564 pieces of proposed legislation to be considered during the April 23-May 2 meeting in Fort Worth.
United Methodist Publishing House mailed 1,540 copies of the two-volume Advance Edition of the Daily Christian Advocate Feb. 15 to delegates, first alternates, bishops and others. Portuguese and French editions later were sent to delegates in Africa.
The two volumes include reports from denominationwide agencies and proposed legislation. Page count is 1,560, up from 1,411 in 2004, when the last General Conference convened.
Delegates also received a 157-page Handbook for Delegates. It includes the proposed plan of organization and rules of order for the assembly and a listing of delegates and committee assignments.
Most petitions sent by agencies, annual conferences, local churches and individuals propose changes in The Book of Discipline, the collection of church law. Others address The Book of Resolutions, which outlines the denomination’s positions on social-justice issues.
Petitions are assigned by subject matter or disciplinary paragraph to one of 14 legislative committees. Committee members consider each petition and then recommend concurrence as submitted, concurrence as amended or nonconcurrence.
The Rev. Gary Graves, a pastor in Beaver Dam, Ky., serves as petitions secretary and is responsible for sorting all petitions. Many submissions were identical.
Here is a roundup highlighting some of the petitions to be considered this spring:
> The most far-reaching petition comes from a six-member task force. It proposes to make the five U.S. jurisdictions into a regional body similar to the central conferences that exist outside the United States. That action would requires a change in the Constitution and must be approved by two-thirds of the General Conference delegates and two-thirds of the aggregate total of annual conference delegates.
> Petitions from 616 groups or individuals ask General Conference to make no change in the existing statements on homosexuality within the Social Principles. That statement declares homosexuals to be “individuals of sacred worth,” but declares the practice of homosexuality to be “incompatible with Christian teaching.”
> The General Board of Church and Society is asking General Conference to delete the incompatibility clause and replace it with: “While Christians of good faith differ on what Christian teaching reveals regarding gender and homosexuality, we affirm God’s grace is available to all.”
> The General Board of Discipleship and United Methodist Publishing House are asking delegates to authorize the creation of a 27-member Hymnal Revision Committee to “prepare and present to the 2012 General Conference a single-volume hymn and worship book.”
A full listing of all petitions is scheduled to be available by early April at http://gc2008.umc.org.