General Conference gives regionalization green light
By Heather Hahn, Eveline Chikwanah and Sam Hodges
April 25, 2024 | CHARLOTTE, N.C. (UM News)
Bishop Tracy Smith Malone surveys the results of a delegate vote in favor of a Worldwide Regionalization plan as she presides over a legislative session of the United Methodist General Conference in Charlotte, N.C., on April 25. The body voted 586 to 164 for an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that will now go before annual conference voters for potential ratification. Photo by Paul Jeffrey, UM News.
Key points:
In what outgoing Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton called “a historic day for our church,” delegates voted 586 to 164 in favor of a constitutional amendment that aims to put The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions on equal footing.
The amendment now moves to annual conference voters for potential ratification.
Earlier in the morning plenary, delegates approved four other Worldwide Regionalization petitions on the consent calendar.
General Conference has now passed much of the legislation that aims to give The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions equal standing in decision-making.
In what outgoing Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton called “a historic day for our church,” delegates voted 586 to 164 for an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that will now go before annual conference voters for potential ratification.
A constitutional amendment requires at least a two-thirds vote at General Conference; the regionalization amendment received 78% of the vote. To be ratified, the amendment also will need at least a two-thirds total vote of annual conference lay and clergy voters. Annual conferences are church regions consisting of multiple congregations and other ministries.
Regionalization has become United Methodist shorthand for a package of legislation that would restructure the denomination. Under the legislation, the U.S. and each central conference — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines — would become regional conferences with the same authority to adapt the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, for more missional effectiveness.
At present, only central conferences have that authority under the denomination’s constitution to adapt the Discipline as missional needs and different legal contexts require. That leads to General Conference itself being very U.S.-centric.
The Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters — a permanent General Conference committee with a majority of its membership from central conferences — submitted the eight petitions of the Worldwide Regionalization proposal. The standing committee, which met April 21-22, gave its final approval to the legislation before the start of General Conference on April 23.
That teed up the proposals for action by the full General Conference plenary in its first week — a big change from previous sessions when General Conference typically does not take up major proposals until its second week.
Earlier in the morning plenary, delegates approved four of the eight Worldwide Regionalization proposals on the consent calendar. The consent calendar includes legislation passed overwhelmingly in General Conference committees that only requires a majority vote and does not have implications for the denomination's budget.
“I stand before you this morning full of hope and also excited,” said Christine Schneider in introducing the constitutional amendment that must be ratified for the other legislation to take effect.
Schneider is a reserve delegate from the Switzerland-France-North Africa Conference and member of the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters that submitted the Worldwide Regionalization proposal.
She celebrated that the legislation before the General Conference delegates was the work of multiple United Methodists around the globe. That includes the standing committee, the Connectional Table (which coordinates denomination-wide ministries) and members of the Christmas Covenant, a grassroots group of United Methodists in the central conferences who saw regionalization as the best way to promote unity.
“This is a result of excellent collaboration of people from all walks of life, of all parts of our connection,” Schneider said.
Judi Kenaston, the Connectional Table’s chief connectional ministries officer and a delegate from the West Virginia Conference, has shepherded the regionalization effort since 2017.
She acknowledged that many at General Conference are troubled by the high number of African delegates who were unable to get visas to attend. As of General Conference’s opening day on April 23, only 751 of 862 allotted delegates had registered — the majority of absences from the continent of Africa.
“One of the concerns was whether having not all of the delegates present at the General Conference would affect this,” Kenaston said in a press conference after the vote. “But the vote total that we had was greater than the number (we needed) if all had been seated. The positive votes would have still carried even if they (absent delegates) had all voted in opposition.”
The Rev. Emmanuel Sinzohagera of the Burundi Conference said the vote was a joyful moment that gave the church “a new kind of energy.”
“This is a good start. A new, fresh start. Legislation is dynamic; it is a process," Sinzohagera said. "This is the beginning of the process. There are many issues to deal with. Let’s keep going."
The Rev. Jonathan Ulanday, a delegate from the Philippines who was part of the original team that crafted the Christmas Covenant, said this was “a Kairos moment” for the church.
“What we are trying to do is to place our Lord Jesus Christ at the center of the table and all of us will exist in equity sharing the gifts so The United Methodist Church will grow and flourish in different contexts in different parts of the world,” he said.
Under the amendment that passed General Conference, each regional conference would have the authority to:
Establish and publish a regional Discipline with legislation and provision pertaining to church structures within its boundaries, including qualifications and educational requirements of clergy and specialized lay ministries.
Set standards of character and other qualifications for the admission of lay members.
Establish and publish a regional hymnal and ritual of church, including for marriage and burial. The rites approved would need to be in line with core doctrines of The United Methodist Church and in accordance with local laws.
Allow the annual conferences to adopt structures adequate to their mission while upholding General Conference-mandated structures.
The amendment also requires regional conferences to recognize annual conferences as the basic bodies of the church, especially on all matters relating to the character and conference relations of its clergy members. Each regional conference would consist of multiple annual conferences.
In all things, the amendment requires regional conferences to be in line with national laws and not to stray from the Articles of Religion and Confession of Faith that contain the denomination’s core belief in Christ’s resurrection, the Trinity and the sacraments of baptism and communion.
The earliest central conferences date to the 1880s, and efforts at regionalization date back to the 1920s. But those efforts have always come up short. At the last regular session of General Conference in 2016, a proposal to create a U.S. central conference didn’t even make it out of legislative committee.
In recent years, efforts of regionalization have gotten caught up in the denomination’s debate over the place of LGBTQ people in the life of the church. Opponents of regionalization have long seen it as a method of liberalizing the church’s stance on homosexuality — at least in the United States.
It should be noted that nowhere does the regionalization legislation mention homosexuality. It also does not end the denomination’s bans on same-sex weddings and “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy.
But if ratified, the amendment would provide each regional conference the freedom to set not only its clergy qualifications but also chargeable offenses under church law.
As part of the morning’s consent calendar, delegates also approved a measure titled “Regionalization and Contextualization of Marriage,” submitted by Michigan Conference Bishop David Bard on behalf of the Council of Bishops. The new additions to the Book of Discipline allow central conferences to set their standards for marriage rites and clergy ordination.
The entire consent calendar that included the regionalization legislation and the Council of Bishops measure passed by a vote of 646 to 73.
“At the end of this General Conference, if anyone comes up to you and says, ‘We didn’t do anything at General Conference,’ (tell them) we just did,” Susan Brumbaugh, General Conference’s coordinator of the calendar, said after that first consent calendar vote.
The easy passage of the amendment and consent calendar indicate a significant change in delegations since the tumultuous 2019 General Conference and the disaffiliation of a quarter of U.S. churches over LGBTQ inclusion.
However, the support for regionalization was hardly unanimous.
One continued sticking point was the fact that the regionalization legislation does not eliminate jurisdictions in the U.S. The five U.S. jurisdictions, like the current seven central conferences, elect bishops but don’t have the same authority to adapt the Discipline.
The Methodist Church established jurisdictions when it formed in 1939 as a way to keep U.S. southern and northern bishops separate and a way to keep Black Methodists segregated from the wider church. The formation of The United Methodist Church in 1968 eliminated the segregated Central Jurisdiction. But many United Methodists agree that the racist history taints the jurisdictional system.
The Rev. Robert Zilhaver, a delegate from the Western Pennsylvania Conference, proposed a lengthy amendment that would have eliminated the requirements in the denomination’s constitution to have jurisdictions. But that amendment failed.
Odell Horne, a delegate from the North Georgia Conference, also raised the concern that regionalization without dealing with jurisdictions continues an “inherently racist system.”
Standing committee members and other delegates acknowledged the concerns.
One of the Worldwide Regionalization petitions on the consent calendar creates a study committee to look at the future of jurisdictions and any issues that come up with regionalization.
Reaction to the regionalization vote came quickly as delegates left plenary for their lunch break.
Zilhaver said he opposed the regionalization proposal.
“I wanted the U.S. region, I just didn’t want it with jurisdictions,” he said.
Without dismantling the five jurisdictions, he said, regionalization will just add another layer of church structure.
So, as Zilhaver sees it, regionalization is adding cost and failing to deal with the church’s history of racism.
“Sin costs money,” he said.
Others see potential for this to be just the first step toward a better United Methodist Church that is moving beyond its colonial past and finding a way to stay together despite differing views on LGBTQ inclusion and other issues.
“I’m so excited,” said the Rev. Amy Lippoldt of the Great Plains Conference and a standing committee member. “It’s a huge and important step for the future of the church in the short term and for the next 100 years.”
But the Rev. James Labala of the Liberia Conference voted against regionalization as presented.
“If America can be a single region, why can’t Africa?” he said. “It’s not fair.”
He added that in his view, regionalization would weaken Africa’s power in The United Methodist Church, even as the denomination continues to grow on the continent.
Three other petitions of worldwide regionalization deal solely with the U.S. and are currently before members of the Conferences Legislative Committee at General Conference. That committee could move that legislation to the full plenary as early as April 27. Those petitions only need a simple majority to pass.
Lonnie Chafin, a Northern Illinois delegate and chair of that committee, said he felt gratitude for all the people who worked so hard on regionalization.
“I feel like this General Conference is really focused on the future of the church,” he said. “We really are figuring out how we’re going to live together and go forward … It’s the most promising thing that could happen.”
Incoming Council of Bishops President Tracy Smith Malone presided during the session that took up the regionalization amendment. She also worked with representatives from the standing committee, Christmas Covenant and Connectional Table as they worked on the legislation that evidently went before General Conference voters.
“We are a beautiful, diverse, international worldwide church and the regionalization plan is a reflection of what that looks like,” she said at a press conference after the vote. “Yes, it decenters the U.S., but it also dismantles colonialism giving a sense of agency, a sense of autonomy, while still keeping us connected missionally, still keeping us as one body — people called United Methodist.”
She added that after the vote, she had to contain herself.
“I said to myself: ‘Look at God and look at God’s people.’”
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Chikwanah and Hodges are United Methodist News reporters.
