GC2012: Set-aside bishop proposal fails

Translate Page
Set-Aside Bishop debate Carlos S. Cao of the Philippines speaks to the issue of a set-aside
bishop during floor debate at the 2012 United Methodist General
Conference in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin.
Click on image to enlarge.View more photos.

The General Conference on April 30 decided not to approve a petition that would have created a new full-time role for the president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops.

Calendar item 219, Petition 20314, received a simple majority of 55.12 percent of the vote in favor, but it fell short of the two-thirds total required to pass because it dealt with a paragraph of the denomination's constitution.

The petition stated that the council "may elect from its active membership a full-time president" who also would "be relieved from residential responsibilities" while in that office.

Both the outgoing council president, Bishop Larry Goodpaster of Western North Carolina, and the Superintendency Legislative Committee chairperson, the Rev. Ellen Alston from Louisiana, appealed for passage of the proposal, which was first made to the 1968 General Conference. Several delegates rose to express their fear that a full-time council president would have too much power or that the position would be thought of as "the face of The United Methodist Church," whether that was the intention or not.

Goodpaster repeated several points that he and other bishops have stressed throughout the process. "This position is to guide and focus the Council of Bishops and to give more time and energy to that."

In response to a question from a Liberian delegate as to whether there was anything wrong with the church's current system, Goodpaster said there was really no change in church polity. "This office would be a person who would guide the mission of the church," he said. "As we live into being a global church, we need to be totally focused and aligned."

A motion to have the full General Conference elect the bishop without residential assignment was defeated, as it had been in the legislative committee.

Delegates also defeated a substitute motion to create a study commission to bring back a report on the proposal in 2016. "It's been thought about for decades," Goodpaster countered. The proposal to create a position of bishop without residential responsibilities was first offered in 1968 but has never advanced out of General Conference.

After the vote Goodpaster pointed out that the council has already taken steps to reform its internal structure and leadership.

"The Council of Bishops will continue to devote ourselves to the mission of the church as servants of Christ Jesus," Goodpaster told United Methodist News Service. "The General Conference has decided and we move on with hope and confidence that the mission will be advanced. We will continue to focus our energy on the adaptive challenge and lead our episcopal areas and the whole church toward increasing the number of vital congregations around the globe.

"We know that the demands placed upon the president of the council will continue to expand," he continued. "We will all find ways to support and encourage the person elected in every way possible as all of us who have served as president of the council have experienced."

*Caldwell is editor of the Virginia United Methodist Advocate and a member of the United Methodist News Service team at General Conference.

News media contact: Maggie Hillery, Tampa, Fla., (813) 574-4837, until May 4; after May 4, (615) 742-5470 or [email protected].


Like what you're reading? Support the ministry of UM News! Your support ensures the latest denominational news, dynamic stories and informative articles will continue to connect our global community. Make a tax-deductible donation at ResourceUMC.org/GiveUMCom.

Sign up for our newsletter!

UMNEWS-SUBSCRIPTION
General Conference

Tackling a petitions conundrum

The General Conference commission spent time grappling with what to do about petitions submitted by people who, for whatever reason, are no longer part of The United Methodist Church.
General Conference
The Rev. Lynn Hill, retired elder in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, preaches at the closing worship of the Commission on the General Conference meeting in Florence, Kentucky. Hill is the chair of the commission’s program committee. Beside him are Don Reasoner, who leads interpretation at General Conference, and Mills Maliwa, a commission member from South Africa. Photo by Heather Hahn.

What to expect at the next General Conference

The group that plans The United Methodist Church’s big legislative assembly is putting together the final details for holding the long-delayed General Conference next year in Charlotte, North Carolina. The group is as changed as the denomination it serves.
General Church
Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton presides at the bishops’ spring 2023 meeting in Chicago. East Ohio Conference Bishop Tracy Smith Malone, at left, is the Council of Bishops president-designate. The bishops gathered April 29-May 5 for their first in-person meeting since 2019 and took on a variety of issues affecting the future of the denomination. Photo by the Rev. Todd Rossnagel, Louisiana Conference.

Bishops call for General Conference in 2026

United Methodist bishops see a need for the denomination’s top lawmaking body to hold an additional meeting to deal with changes resulting from church disaffiliations. Meanwhile, the denomination’s finance agency has its own concerns.

 

United Methodist Communications is an agency of The United Methodist Church

©2023 United Methodist Communications. All Rights Reserved