wfn.org | Percentage of General Conference delegates from outside U.S. to

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

increase

Dec. 3, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.     {712}

NOTE TO EDITORS: You may wish to use the General Conference logo with
this story.

By United Methodist News Service

The percentage of delegates from outside the United States will increase
slightly for the United Methodist General Conference in Cleveland May
2-12, 2000 because of lay and clergy membership changes.

Carolyn Marshall, General Conference secretary, has recently notified
bishops, conference secretaries and conference council directors of the
number of delegates they are entitled to elect in their respective
annual conference sessions next year to represent them at the top
legislative gathering.  

The General Conference meets every four years and includes an equal
number of lay and clergy delegates from every annual  conference.
Membership has been on a steady decline in the United States for more
than two decades while church growth is being experienced in other
places such as Africa and the Philippines.

A total of 152 delegates will be elected to attend the conference from
annual (regional) conferences in Europe, Africa and the Philippines,
representing an increase of 14  delegates over the 1996 total of 138,
according to Marshall.

Four of the five jurisdictions in the United States will lose members.
The North Central Jurisdiction will have eight fewer delegates; the
Northeastern, South Central and Western 
will each have six fewer delegates.  The Southeastern Jurisdiction will
gain six.

The number of delegates in 2000 will total 992 compared to 998 in 1996,
Marshall said.

She has reminded the church leaders of a  Constitutional change in the
description of those clergy permitted to vote for delegates to General
Conference, a change that was made by the 1996 General Conference and
subsequently ratified by the annual conferences.  

Language now in Paragraph 33 of the church's 1996 Book of Discipline is
supplanted by the following:  "The ordained ministerial delegates to the
general conference and to the jurisdictional and central conferences
shall be elected by and from the ordained ministerial members in full
connection with the annual conference or provisional annual conference."

The old language limited ministerial delegates to "travelling preachers"
who have been conference members for four years.  The new provision
allows all clergy - deacons and elders - to vote, regardless of the time
they were admitted into membership, Marshall explained.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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http://www.umc.org/umns/