Three Petitions to General Conference 2012...
We offer three petitions to General Conference 2012 as an alternative vision to the "Call to Action" proposals. It is our hope that together we might find once again what it means to be a connectional people of God's grace and love at work in the world.
Current Structure, the Call to Action proposal, and
A New United Methodist Administrative Order.
How We Got Here & What's At Stake...
The United Methodist Church, as a twelve-million-member global Protestant denomination, faces a moment to decide if it will be a global, Wesleyan, connectional church. The "Call To Action" proposal from a leading body of the UMC approved a plan to reorganize the church that largely ignored more than a third of the denomination - four million United Methodists in Central Conferences who worship and live outside the United States. It is a plan that concentrates power in the hands of a few people and creates an increasingly colonial, hierarchical, centralized church
The serious issues associated with the proposals being presented to General Conference has led a group of clergy and laity assembled by the Methodist Federation for Social Action (MFSA) to draft legislation to address these concerns: Read More
Summary of the Three Petitions...
A New United Methodist Administrative Order: Establishes a Coordinating Council which replaces the Connectional Table, reconfigures program agencies into three, retaining the social witness as a strong component of the UMC's work, and establishes a Center for Resourcing and Operations to ensure the effective use of resources and to centralize administrative services where possible. This proposal will maintain appropriate legal and fiduciary management by elected boards of directors appropriate to the scale of ministry provided. You can read this petition at www.mfsagc12.org/A New United Methodist Administrative Order.pdf.
Clergy Evaluation Process: Places the responsibility for congregational success on the shoulders of the congregation, the pastors, the district superintendents and the bishops together, rather than solely on the shoulders of the pastors. You can read this petition at www.mfsagc12.org/Clergy Evaluation Process.pdf.
A More Equitable Worldwide Connection: Places all Central Conferences on an equal footing with the United States by establishing a United States Central Conference. It also permits larger Central Conferences to create Jurisdictional Conferences and to elect bishops under either Central Conference or Jurisdictional Conference proceedings. You can read this petition at www.mfsagc12.org/A More Equitable Worldwide Connection.pdf.