wfn.org | Archbishop of Canterbury to address General Conference

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

April 20, 1999 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville, Tenn. 10-21-71B{209}

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PITTSBURGH (UMNS) - The Archbishop of Canterbury will preach for one of the
morning worship services at the United Methodist General Conference next
year in Cleveland, marking the first time the head of the worldwide Anglican
communion has addressed the denomination's top legislative body.

Archbishop George Carey's appearance at the conference was confirmed by the
18-member Commission on the General Conference during a meeting in
Pittsburgh, April 16-18. The group, responsible for planning the conference,
is led by Chairwoman Mollie Stewart of Valhermosa Springs, Ala. The
conference, which meets every four years, will gather May 2-12, 2000. 

With only 12 and a half months to go before the conference opens, the
commission made dozens of decisions related to program and facilities. The
conference will attract nearly 1,000 delegates -- half clergy, half lay --
from the United States, Africa, Asia and Europe, along with at least twice
that many visitors.  

An Act of Repentance for Reconciliation, being developed by the church's
Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns and the Council of
Bishops, is scheduled for Thursday, May 4, beginning at 8 p.m.   

Bishop William Boyd Grove, Charleston, W.Va., ecumenical officer for the
Council of Bishops, told commissioners that the service has the potential of
being "one of the most noteworthy events" at a conference that many are
predicting will be divisive. "It can become a mighty moment, and we are
really praying that it will," he said. 

The service will acknowledge racism and prejudice in the Methodist Episcopal
Church, which prompted the departure of African Americans and the creation
of three separate black denominations --African Methodist Episcopal, African
Methodist Episcopal Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal. 

Repentance will also be sought for a segregated Central Jurisdiction, which
existed in the former Methodist Church from 1939 to 1968. Members of the
four denominations in the Cleveland area will be invited to attend the
event. Delegates will be asked to approve a churchwide study guide on
reconciliation and make changes in the church's Constitution related to
racism. 

The commission voted to recommend expansion of opening worship each day from
30 to 45 minutes, in addition to 15 minutes of preparatory music. The
commission affirmed plans by Cynthia Wilson Felder, director of music for
the conference, to invite a variety of music groups which will reflect the
church's diversity. Under consideration are a mass choir, bell choir, Korean
choir, a choir made up of students from one or more historically black
colleges related to the church, a mass youth choir, a Tongan choir,
liturgical dance choir, a deaf sign choir, a children's choir and a brass
choir. Organist for the conference will be Monya Logan of St. Luke United
Methodist Church in Dallas. Johnetta Page of Dallas will also serve as an
accompanist.

As a reminder of the diversity among delegates and membership throughout the
church, worship bulletins will include at least partial translations in six
languages.  

The long, narrow hall of the Cleveland Convention Center, with a stage at
one end, is presenting a challenge for conference planners. The commission
is reserving a larger than usual screen above the stage for the benefit of
delegates at the rear.  

To ensure fairness in the seating of 121 delegations, the commission members
reversed the front and back halves of the delegates at the most recent
conference in 1996 and drew names for placement, beginning at the front.  

Among those seated at the front will be delegations from Missouri West,
Western Pennsylvania, South Congo, Northeast Philippines, North Central New
York, Florida, Middle Philippines, Switzerland-France, Texas, Rio Grande,
Mindanao, Northwest Katanga, Mozambique, Mexico, South Georgia and Western
New York. Seated at the rear will be Illinois Great Rivers, East Congo, New
England, North Indiana, Bicole Mission Philippines, Philippines, Oklahoma,
Peninsula-Delaware, Germany North, Bulacan Philippines, Poland, Denmark,
Hungary Provisional and Holston. (Detailed assignments for all delegations
will be posted on the General Conference Web site: www.umc.org/gc2000.)

All petitions to the General Conference from individuals, local churches,
and annual conferences will be processed through one of 10 standing
legislative committees.  The number of such committees will remain the same
as 1996, but all petitions related to the Social Principles will be referred
to a new Faith and Order Committee. Petitions that went to an Ordained and
Diaconal Ministry Committee in 1996 will be referred to a committee of
Higher Education and Ministry.  

Other committees for the 2000 conference are: Church and Society;
Conferences; Discipleship; Financial Administration; General
Administration/Judicial Administration; Global Ministries; Independent
Commissions; and Local Church.

Delegates to the 1996 conference recommended that plenary sessions of future
conferences provide more opportunities to discern God's will. Responding to
that desire, a Committee on Plan of Organization and Rules of Order of Order
is recommending ways to stop deliberations for times for reflection and
prayer. One member of the Commission on the General Conference described the
call for discernment as a "time out" option for the bishop presiding. 

Money continues to be a major concern for the commission. Gary Bowen,
business manager for the conference, reminded commissioners that the $3.5
million budgeted for the 2000 General Conference will be inadequate. "There
is no way we can put on the General Conference with the money that is
there,"  he said. Bowen is a staff member of the General Council on Finance
and Administration (GCFA), with offices in Evanston, Ill.

Sandra Kelley Lackore, GCFA top executive, explained that the 1997-2000
apportioned funds for the 2000 General Conference were increased 6 percent
over 1993-1996. The apportionments for the 1996 conference had not been
increased over those allocated for the previous 1992 session, but reserve
funds were spent to cover actual costs. The estimated cost for the 2000
conference is projected at least 4 percent higher than the 1996 conference. 

"An operation this big has to work with adequate reserves, and the
commission's are limited," she said. She estimates the cost of the 2004
conference will represent a 30 percent increase over 2000.  

Acting on a suggestion from Lackore, the commission appointed a committee to
explore alternatives to the ways General Conference operates, including the
possibilities of fewer delegates, meeting in the same city and increased
cost-sharing with the delegates. The committee's report will be made at the
October 1999 meeting of the commission, which then  could take
recommendations to the 2000 General Conference.  

Issues related to General Conference are among those being discussed by a
Connectional Process Team, created by the 1996 General Conference to lead
the church in a "transformational direction."

Aileen Williams of Rochester, Minn., a member of both groups, said it is
time questions are asked and realities are tested. "What does representation
mean?" she asked. "What does legislation do for us?"

"Somebody must be willing to plow the ground and get the ideas out there,"
she said. Until now, the Commission on the General Conference has seen its
role as carrying out the directives of the General Conference in planning
the next events. However, some commissioners pushed for the commission to
raise issues and offer alternatives. If the 2000 General Conference should
give it that authority, changes could not be implemented until 2004. 

Commission chairwoman Stewart said it is important that delegates to the
conference have all the financial facts they need to make intelligent
decisions about future General Conferences. The report from the commission
will include these facts, commissioners were assured.  

Rich Peck, staff member of the United Methodist Publishing House, who will
edit the Daily Christian Advocate (DCA), shared plans with the commission.
For the first time, delegates will receive all of  the Advance DCA , in four
sections, before the conference. The first, a handbook for delegates, and
the second and third, including all petitions and their assignment to
legislative committees, will be mailed  in January. A fourth section,
including reports from the GCFA, will be mailed in late February.
Commissioners voted against a proposal  to eliminate a roundup edition of
the DCA following the conference. They also agreed to put the DCA on the
Internet as a free service and to include  the full texts of daily sermons.

Members of the Commission on the General Conference met in Pittsburgh in
order to tour the convention facilities where the 2004 General Conference
will be held.

# # #

NOTE: Members of the Commission on the General Conference, in addition to
Stewart and Williams, are: Harry Shaner, Walnut Creek, Calif.; James M.
Perry, Minneapolis; Robert B. Brandt, Rochelle Park, N.J.; Rodolfo C.
Beltran, Cabanatuan City, Philippines; Kenneth W. Chalker, Cleveland; Carole
Cotton-Winn, Slidell, La.; Nancy K. Foster, Tulsa, Okla.; Roberto L. Gomez,
Mission, Texas; Anita L. Iceman, Santa Ana, Calif.; Shirley Parris,
Brooklyn, N.Y.; Kimball Salmon, Sacramento, Calif.; Phylemon D. Titus,
Detroit; and  Charles D. White Jr., Charlotte, N.C.  Ex-officio members are
Carolyn M. Marshall, Veedersburg, Ind.; Lackore and Bowen.  

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