wfn.org | Task force will seek ways to streamline General Conferences

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

April 10, 2003	News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn.
 10-31-32-71BPI{211}

NOTE: Artwork of the 2004 General Conference logo is available with this
report.

By Jackie Campbell*

PITTSBURGH (UMNS) - In an effort to better control costs, a newly formed
United Methodist task force will examine ways to improve the operation of the
church's top legislative assembly.

The group's goal will be to produce a document that looks at the pros and
cons of current and proposed procedures for conducting the church's business
at General Conference. The assembly draws nearly 1,000 delegates together
every four years to make decisions affecting the church's operation, laws and
stands on social issues. It will meet again April 26-May 7, 2004, in
Pittsburgh.

The Rev. James Perry, chairperson of the church's Commission on the General
Conference, appointed the task force, or "jump start" subcommittee, at an
April 3-4 meeting in the host city. 

"2004 is the first time that finance is going to be the driving force in
issues in General Conference," said Bishop Bruce Blake of the Oklahoma Area.
The church should consider proposals that could streamline operations,
including examining the petition process by which legislation is brought
before the assembly, he said. Members may also look into the frequency and
length of General Conference sessions.

The cost of hosting the General Conference provided an example of the need to
study alternatives. The Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference host committee
for the 2004 gathering has a budget of $300,000 - nearly eight times more
than the $40,000 cost of hosting the event in Pittsburgh in 1964, said the
committee's Rev. Alan Morrison. 

Because the current cost is too great for a single annual conference to bear,
Morrison said, Western Pennsylvania has asked for contributions of $5,000
from each of the conferences in the Northeastern Jurisdiction. It also will
seek help from the church's general agencies and the United Methodist
Foundation.

The subcommittee will work to provide information for future General
Conference commissions to consider in proposing change. Members of the task
force include: the Rev. Gail Murphy-Geiss of Centennial, Colo., facilitator;
the Rev. Roberto L. Gomez of Mission, Texas; Roland Siegrist of Linz,
Austria; the Rev. Denny White Jr. of Charlotte, N.C.; and Aileen L. Williams
of Rochester, Minn. 

In other action, the Commission on the General Conference approved a proposal
from the host committee to defray costs by selling the badges required for
visitors to the conference for $2 each. The committee has designed a souvenir
welcome badge that will sell for $2. T-shirts and denim logo shirts also will
be sold.

The commission also spent time working on language-related concerns. The
group decided to ask that bishops in the church's central conferences -
regional units in countries other than the United States - be responsible for
notifying General Conference planners of the names of delegates who will
require translators for legislative work sessions and other activities, and
the languages they speak.

Plenary sessions of the 2004 General Conference will be simultaneously
translated from English into five languages - German, French, Portuguese,
Spanish and Swahili.

For legislative work sessions, requests for translators in any language must
be made in advance. Organizers said they would attempt to secure services for
consecutive translation in any language if a request is received before the
General Conference.   

The commission selected the languages for simultaneous translation based on
input from bishops of the central conferences. 

"There was unanimous support among the bishops for Portuguese and French
translation," Blake said. "And the Congo bishops felt very strongly that
Swahili was needed in simultaneous translation."

The 10 million-member church has more than 1 million members in Europe,
Africa and the Philippines. Most of the delegates who represent those areas
at the conference speak English, German, French or Portuguese.

The Advance Daily Christian Advocate, which contains a delegate handbook and
other conference materials, including proposed legislation, will be produced
in English, French, German and Portuguese. The cost of translating the
voluminous document from English into the three other languages is about 17
cents per word, or an estimated $605,000 to $675,000. The 2004 conference
will be the first for which the book will be available in a language other
than English.

A suggestion to provide Advance Daily Christian Advocate material in Spanish
was not accepted. Gomez, a Hispanic member of the commission, said the
benefit would not justify the cost. He said funds could be better used to
translate changes made in Book of Discipline and other materials for
Spanish-speaking church members after the General Conference.

The commission heard a report from worship planners, who said they envision a
General Conference opening service that surrounds delegates and church
leaders with songs from all over the world. The songs will celebrate a
renewal of baptism and Holy Communion, emphasizing the conference theme,
"Water Washed and Spirit Born." 

Banners, dancers and a variety of drummers and musicians will emphasize the
worldwide nature of the gathering in the opening service, said the Rev.
Barbara Day Miller, dean of worship at Emory University's Candler School of
Theology in Atlanta and music director for the General Conference. "It will
emphasize the transforming, renewing spirit of God, using words from the hymn
'Wash, O God, Your Sons and Daughters' by Ruth Duck."

The Rev. Carlton R. Young, the editor of the United Methodist Hymnal, has
produced an expanded arrangement of the hymn for the opening service, Miller
said.

Representative choirs from throughout the church will participate in worship
each morning of the General Conference. Other groups will be invited to offer
music or dance at various locations around the Convention Center.

"We had 75 groups apply to participate, and we will be choosing some of them
to invite," Miller said. Applications came from throughout the United States
and from international groups, as well. 

# # #

*Campbell is a staff writer for the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference of
the United  Methodist Church.

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