wfn.org | Agency begins putting 'common table' plan into legislation

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

May 29, 2003  News media contact: Tim Tanton7(615)742-54707Nashville, Tenn. 
10-71B{305}

By United Methodist News Service

A United Methodist agency is beginning work on legislation for creating a
single "Connectional Table" of church leaders who would coordinate the
denomination's work worldwide.

During three conference calls in May, members of the denomination's General
Council on Ministries worked on details of their "Living Into the Future"
proposal, outlining a vision for a global common table, where annual
conferences, agencies and other entities would meet to guide the church's
programs. A committee of the council is preparing legislation for the full
group to consider in September. The proposal then would go to General
Conference, the denomination's top lawmaking body, next spring in Pittsburgh.

The document is still subject to revision, with the council's executive
committee meeting July 9-10 in Detroit, "and final action on whatever
legislation describes this proposal will not be taken until September," said
Daniel K. Church, top staff executive of the Council on Ministries in Dayton,
Ohio. The council coordinates the work of most of the denomination's
agencies.
 
During a May 8 conference call, the council voted 24-6 to affirm the concept
of the Connectional Table. The document itself was approved in parts during
the three calls.

Members of the council spent considerable time discussing the composition of
the common table, which would comprise about 100 people from a cross section
of church roles and geographic areas. Concern about where the members would
come from has spurred the development of an alternative proposal by church
members in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, which has more United Methodists
than any other U.S. area.

After the last conference call, Church said the number of people sitting at
the table is a secondary issue. Most important, he said, is having "a
conciliar setting where the ministries of the church and the resources of the
church are brought together for discussion and decision-making by a group of
faithful stewards who have a comprehensive, holistic view" of the general
church. Such a table would bring the traditional functions of the Council on
Ministries and the church's General Council on Finance and Administration to
a common place, he said.

Under the proposal, the governing boards of both councils would be dissolved
and their functions moved to the Connectional Table - an idea that was
opposed by some Council on Ministries members. The remaining agencies would
keep their boards, and 10 of them would have voice and vote at the table. 

"It's a significant step in developing a holistic view, even though the
governing boards are still expected to exist," Church said.

Ongoing work on the churchwide budget for 2005-08 could affect the ultimate
proposal. At a May 19-22 meeting, the Council on Finance and Administration
emphasized the importance of spending less on administering the
denomination's programs. (See UMNS story #295, "Church finance agency seeks
new level of efficiency," May 23.) The church is in a budget squeeze, and
individual finance council members hinted at the possibility of realigning
some of the general agencies - a move that would have a bearing on the
"Living Into the Future" proposal.

The Council on Ministries' meeting in September will include joint sessions
with the Council on Finance and Administration.

An updated draft of the proposal will be posted online soon at gcom-umc.org.
"We will welcome comment and hope that people will be in dialogue with us,"
Church said. 
Council representatives also will meet with General Conference delegations
this summer to share the proposal and receive comments and questions.

During May, the council also approved by written ballot three initiatives for
recommendation to General Conference as "special programs" for the church's
2005-08 period of work, subject to consultation with the Council of Bishops.
Those programs are the Holistic Strategy for Africa, the Holistic Strategy
for Latin America and the Caribbean and an initiative on Children, Poverty
and Violence.

A special program, described in the church's Book of Discipline, is a
four-year emphasis approved by General Conference and assigned to one of the
denomination's agencies. 

The council also approved a $230 million minimum for the World Service Fund
to support the work of the denomination's program agencies in the next
four-year period. That figure, along with the GCOM's operating budget, was
presented to the church's Council on Finance and Administration during its
May meeting.

Budget constraints have led to the Council on Ministries to cut its own staff
this year. It laid off three of its 17 employees in May, though the laid-off
workers agreed to continue at the agency until no later than Aug. 15. 
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United Methodist News Service
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