From the Worldwide Faith News archives www.wfn.org


Non-U.S. delegates will increase at '04 General Conference


From "NewsDesk" <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>
Date Mon, 3 Feb 2003 15:06:50 -0600

							      
Feb. 3, 2003	    News media contact: Joretta Purdue7(202)
546-87227Washington	10-21-71BI{049}

NOTE: A complete list of the number of General Conference delegates that each
annual conference will elect follows the story. Annual conferences are listed
by jurisdiction or central conference.

By United Methodist News Service

When United Methodists gather in Pittsburgh next year for their top
legislative assembly, their number will include more delegates from outside
the United States than ever before.

Just as the U.S. Congress redistricts every 10 years in the wake of the
national census, the number of lay and clergy delegates to the United
Methodist's highest legislative assembly, the General Conference, changes to
keep total representation at 1,000 or less. This time, the changes also
reflect an alteration in the determining formula, due to legislative action
of the 2000 General Conference.

The biggest shift is an increased representation of the central conferences,
the church's regional units outside the United States. The total number of
delegates these conferences will elect for 2004 is 184, an increase of 32
since the 2000 gathering in Cleveland. And because the church's constitution
requires equal numbers of clergy and laity, there will be 92 of each from the
central conferences.

For the 2004 session, a total of 994 delegates will be elected - two more
than for the 2000 session. Included in both totals are 10 voting delegates
from the concordat churches: four from Great Britain and two each from Puerto
Rico, Mexico and the Caribbean & the Americas.

The General Conference meets every four years. During the two-week assembly,
the delegates revise the church's Book of Discipline and adopt position
statements on a wide range of issues for the Book of Resolutions. General
Conference is the only entity that speaks for the entire United Methodist
Church.

U.S. changes are mixed, with the Southeastern and South Central Jurisdictions
growing and the Northeastern, North Central and Western Jurisdictions having
fewer delegates.

Southeastern gained eight for a total of 278, and South Central gained 10 for
a total of 170. Western, the smallest jurisdiction with less than half a
million United Methodists, had 56 delegates at the last General Conference
but will have only 44 at the next.  Northeastern and North Central are each
losing 18 delegates: Northeastern dropping from 162 to 144 and North Central
from 182 to 164.

Among the annual (regional) conferences, Virginia will elect the largest
number, 32. It is followed by Florida with 30. North Georgia and Western
North Carolina will each name 28. All of these are in the Southeastern
Jurisdiction.

The Texas Conference in the South Central Jurisdiction along with West Ohio
in North Central will each name 26. Rounding out the 12 largest conferences
are South Carolina with 24; North Carolina and Oklahoma, 22 each; and East
Ohio, Iowa and Western Pennsylvania, 20 each.

The newly merged Missouri Conference will have 18 delegates - the same total
as Missouri East and Missouri West had in 2000.

The smallest annual conferences are guaranteed one clergy and one lay
delegate. In the United States, these are the missionary conferences - Red
Bird in Appalachia, Oklahoma Indian Missionary and Rio Grande - and
Yellowstone and Oregon-Idaho.

Outside the five U.S. jurisdictions, the largest annual conferences are those
in Africa. Liberia and Central Congo will each elect 14 delegates. Nigeria
will send 12. East Congo and Sierra Leone will choose 10 each. East Africa
and North Katanga are allocated eight each, and North-West Katanga has six.
Western Angola and South-West Katanga will elect four.

All the annual conferences in the European and Philippines central
conferences, as well as some in Africa, will elect only two people.

The United Methodist Church has nearly 10 million members worldwide,
including 8.4 million in the United States.

# # #

A complete list of the number of delegates, half clergy and half lay, to be
elected by each annual conference follows. Carolyn M. Marshall, General
Conference secretary, provided this information.

Conference	2004 delegates
	
Jurisdictional Conferences	
North Central	
Dakotas 4 
Detroit 12 
East Ohio	20 
Illinois Great Rivers	18 
Iowa	20 
Minnesota	8 
North Indiana	12 
Northern Illinois	12 
South Indiana	12 
West Michigan	8 
West Ohio	26 
Wisconsin	12 
	
   NCJ Totals	164 
	
Northeastern	
Baltimore-Washington	18 
Central Pennsylvania	16 
Eastern Pennsylvania	14 
Greater New Jersey	12 
New England	12 
New York	14 
North Central New York	8 
Peninsula-Delaware	6 
Troy	4 
West Virginia	12 
Western New York	4 
Western Pennsylvania	20 
Wyoming 4 
	
     NEJ Totals 144 
	
South Central	
Central Texas	14 
Kansas East	8 
Kansas West	8 
Little Rock	4 
Louisiana	14 
Missouri	18 
Nebraska	8 
New Mexico	4 
North Arkansas	8 
North Texas	16 
Northwest Texas 4 
Oklahoma	22 
Oklahoma Indian Missionary	2 
Rio Grande	2 
Southwest Texas 12 
Texas	26 
	
     SCJ Totals 170 
	
Southeastern	
Alabama-West Florida	14 
Florida 30 
Holston 16 
Kentucky	14 
Memphis 8 
Mississippi	18 
North Alabama	16 
North Carolina	22 
North Georgia	28 
Red Bird Missionary	2 
South Carolina	24 
South Georgia	14 
Tennessee	12 
Virginia	32 
Western North Carolina	28 
	
     SEJ Totals 278 
	
Western 
Alaska Missionary	2 
California-Nevada	10 
California-Pacific	10 
Desert Southwest	4 
Oregon-Idaho	2 
Pacific Northwest	6 
Rocky Mountain	8 
Yellowstone	2 
	
     WJ Totals	44 
	
Central Conferences	
Africa	
East Africa	8 
Eastern Angola	2 
Mozambique	4 
Western Angola	2 
East Zimbabwe	2 
West Zimbabwe	2 
	
Congo	
Central Congo	14 
East Congo	10 
North Katanga	8 
North-West Katanga	6 
Oriental and Equator	2 
South Congo	2 
South-West Katanga	4 
Tanganyika/Tanzania	2 
West Congo	2 
	
West Africa	
Liberia 14 
Nigeria 12 
Sierra Leone	10 
	
Central and	
Southern Europe 
Austria Provisional	2 
Bulgaria Provisional	2 
Czech and Slovak Republics	2 
Hungary Provisional	2 
Yugoslavia-Macedonia Prov.	2 
Poland	2 
Switzerland-France	2 
	
Germany 
Germany East	2 
Germany North	2 
Germany South	2 
Germany Southwest	2 
	
Northern Europe 
Denmark 2 
Estonia 2 
Finland-Finnish Provisional	2 
Finland-Swedish Provisional	2 
Norway	2 
Central Russia	2 
Eastern Russia-Kazakhstan Prov. 2 
North West Russia Provisional	2 
Southern Russia-Ukraine-Moldova Prov.	2 
Sweden	2 
	
Philippines	
Bicol Mission Philippines	2 
Bulacan Philippines	2 
Central Luzon Philippines	2 
East Mindanao Philippines	2 
Middle Philippines	2 
Mindanao Philippines	2 
North Central Philippines	2 
Northwest Mindanao Philippines	2 
Northeast Philippines	2 
Northern Philippines	2 
Northwest Philippines	2 
Palawan Philippines Provisional 2 
Pampango Philippines	2 
Philippines	2 
Philippines East	2 
Southwest Philippines Provisional	2 
Visayas Philippines	2 
West Middle Philippines 2 
Pangasinan Philippines	2 
	
   Central Conferences Total	184 
	
Concordat Churches	
Caribbean & the Americas	2 
Great Britain	4 
Mexico	2 
Puerto Rico	2 
	
  Concordat Churches Total	10 
	
SUMMARY 
North Central Jurisdiction	164 
Northeastern Jurisdiction	144 
South Central Jurisdiction	170 
Southeastern Jurisdiction	278 
Western Jurisdiction	44 
Central Conferences	184 
Concordat Churches	10 
	
     TOTAL	994 

*************************************
United Methodist News Service
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