wfn.org | Group fine-tunes General Conference details - and bakers start co ok

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TITLE:Group fine-tunes General Conference details - and bakers start cookin'

Oct. 12, 1999 News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.    10-21-30-71B{528}

NOTE:  A General Conference logo and a sidebar, UMNS story #529, are
available with this report.

CLEVELAND (UMNS) -- United Methodists of Ohio have a special reason for
being anxious about Y2K.  It's General Conference!

The church's international legislative body, which meets every four years,
will convene in Cleveland May 2-12, attracting nearly 1,000 delegates and at
least twice that many visitors.  Delegates -- half lay and half clergy --
will come from Africa, Asia, Europe and the United States. A large host
committee and a corps of 2,000 United Methodist volunteers from the area are
preparing to meet the visitors' needs during the 10-day event.

Members of the commission charged with planning the conference met in
Cleveland Oct. 8-10 for the final time before the May event.  For several
hours during their meeting, they heard plans from the chairpeople of more
than 25 host sub-committees that are working on everything from
transportation, housing and registration to cookies and the construction of
Habitat for Humanity houses.  

"We are trying very hard to be good hosts," said Cleveland pastor Kenneth
Chalker, chairman of the host committee and one of 17 members on the
Commission on the General Conference. The commission is headed by Martha
Stuart of Valhermosa Springs, Ala.  

It has become a tradition for United Methodists in the host area to provide
homemade cookies for breaks during the conference, on the scale of 25,000 a
day. Special permission to distribute the free cookies has been granted by
Cleveland Convention Center officials, and some Ohio cooks are already
baking and freezing the tasty morsels, according to Lynda Slack, chairwoman
of the cookie committee.

If delegates get tired of sitting in legislative committees or protracted
plenary sessions, they will have an opportunity during the middle weekend to
work on Habitat for Humanity houses in the city. Visitors and local citizens
will be working on the houses throughout the time of the conference. Millard
Fuller, founder of Habitat, will bring greetings to the delegates and
visitors at the Cleveland Convention Center May 4. United Methodists are
among the leading groups participating in the home-building program made
famous by President Jimmy Carter and his wife, Rosalynn. 

Working closely with the commission, host committees are focusing on a wide
range of services, including transportation, hospitality for about 150
delegates from outside the United States, a reception for bishops and their
spouses at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame on the eve of the conference,
registration, information, an opening service of communion, greeters, music,
devotional life, tours of the region on the middle Saturday, alternate
housing for visiting groups, and a special Sunday night event featuring
music by the five United Methodist-related colleges in the area.

The commission approved a detailed calendar during its meeting. As in the
past, the conference will officially open with a service of Holy Communion
at 1:30 p.m. Tuesday, May 2, and adjourn late Friday, May 12.  

Special events on the calendar include the orientation of delegates under
30; an episcopal address on the opening night by Bishop Emerito P. Nacpil of
the Philippines; acknowledgment of the 200th anniversary of the United
Brethren in Christ and Evangelical Association, a predecessor church of the
denomination; daily worship services; an ecumenical worship service
featuring the Archbishop of Canterbury George Cary as preacher. 

Serving as director of music for her second consecutive conference will be
the Rev. Cynthia Wilson Felder of Ben Hill United Methodist Church in
Atlanta.  

Last item on the day's agenda Thursday, May 4, will be an Act of Repentance
for Reconciliation.  Through a special liturgy, delegates will ask for
forgiveness for the denomination's racism, which prompted black members to
leave the church and form separate historically black Methodist
denominations -- African Methodist Episcopal, African Methodist Episcopal
Zion and Christian Methodist Episcopal. Forgiveness will also be asked for
creation of the segregated, all-black Central Jurisdiction, which existed in
the former Methodist Church in the United States from 1940 to 1968.
Delegates will be asked to approve a churchwide study guide to help members
understand the history and to approve a constitutional amendment putting the
United Methodist Church officially on record opposing racism.  

The act of repentance and related proposals have been developed by the
church's Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns in
consultation with the Commission on Pan- Methodist Union, which is exploring
the possibility of union of the United Methodist Church and the three
historically black Methodist denominations.

Although bishops do not vote at the conference, they will be seated on the
stage of the assembly hall and some of their members will preside over
plenary sessions. 

During most of the first week of the conference, delegates will work in one
of 10 legislative committees that will process petitions from individuals,
local churches, annual (regional) conferences and churchwide agencies. By
the close of the conference, the delegates will have revised the church's
Book of Discipline and Book of Resolutions.  Only the General Conference can
speak officially for the denomination and even it is not allowed to change
the church's Constitution without subsequent endorsement by annual
(regional) conferences.

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United Methodist News Service
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