wfn.org | Kansas Says 'No' to Merger

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3023 notes).

Note 3022 by UMNS on June 19, 1996 at 16:47 Eastern (5141 characters).

SEARCH: annual conference, Kansas East, Kansas West, merger, vote,
proposal

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CONTACT: Linda Green                              308(10-71){3022}
         Nashville, Tenn. (615) 742-5470             June 19, 1996

Kansas East, West conferences
won't unite now

                        A UMNS news feature
            by Charlene Bailey and Kathy Kruger Noble*

     United Methodists in Kansas will not ask the South Central
Jurisdiction to create a new Annual Conference this year.
     While members of the Kansas East Annual Conference approved a
proposal to create a single annual conference in the state, the
proposal failed in the Kansas West Annual Conference by 56 votes.
Ballots from both conferences were unsealed and counted after the
Kansas West Conference adjourned June 15.
     On June 2, the Kansas East members voted 377 to 108 to unite
the two conferences. Twelve days later members of Kansas West
voted against the union 374 to 318.
     The two conferences also split on a proposed mission and
vision statement and plan of organization. Kansas East approved
the plan 396 to 80; Kansas West rejected it 437 to 244.
     In announcing the outcome, Kansas Bishop Fritz Mutti said,
"the conferences have decided this is not the time to create a new
annual conference but have committed themselves to the renewal and
transformation of the present conferences."
     Timing appeared to be the main reason for members of the
Kansas West conference voting against the merger proposal. Many
people indicated they believed Kansas United Methodists would --
and should -- be in a single Annual Conference eventually, but
that the 1996 proposal had been developed too quickly. Some also
said relationships had not yet developed sufficiently among large
numbers of United Methodists in the two conferences.
     While district superintendents had stated their unanimous
support for the proposal, other lay and clergy leaders in Kansas
West were divided on the question.
     The wide margin of support in Kansas East for becoming one
conference (72 to 28 percent) suggested that members were ready to
reach out in faith across current boundaries and begin working
together to develop mission and ministry that would benefit the
entire area. The vote did not come without some of the same
questions as those asked in Kansas West, however. Kansas East
members anticipated a transition period during which the plan
would be developed and ultimately approved by the new conference.
     Supporters in Kansas West urged members to step out in faith
and trust that difficulties with the one-conference concept and
the proposed structure could be worked out. A proposed uniting
conference in June 1997 would have had the final say on the
structure and staffing of the new organization. United Methodist
polity prohibits predecessor annual conferences from binding their
successors.
     If Kansas West had been able to vote "not yet" as well as
"yes" or "no" on the proposal, some believe that option would have
carried. 
     This is the third year in which United Methodists in Kansas
have considered questions about creating one annual conference in
their state. In 1994 both bodies overwhelmingly approved a request
from the Area Committee on Episcopacy to have a design team begin
developing a plan for a single conference.
     Both conferences in 1995 -- by more than a two-to-one margin 
-- authorized forming a New Comprehensive Design Team to bring a
plan for a new conference to the 1996 sessions.
     The design team's timeline had called for the new conference
to begin operation in January 1988 -- with the transition of some
aspects of moving from two conferences to one taking up to five
years. Among those areas were pensions, support for conference
camping programs and support of institutions.
     The proposed design stressed vision, lay leadership, and
putting financial and personnel resources closer to the local
church. It proposed a conference administrator, limited conference
staff and the addition of staff in each of the nine districts.
     Discussions concerning a single conference in Kansas have
been conducted informally since the creation of the United
Methodist Church in 1968. Those discussions gained momentum in the
late 1980s and early 1990s when Bishop Kenneth Hicks, now retired,
had district superintendents meet as an area cabinet. Delegates to
the 1992 General and South Central Jurisdictional conferences
worked as an area body whenever possible. 
     United Methodists in Kansas currently are served by an Area
Media Center, Area Committee on Cooperative Ministry and Area
Seminar on Professional Ministry.
                              #  #  #

     * Bailey is the director of communications for the Kansas
East Annual Conference. Noble is communications specialist in
Kansas West.

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