A special session of the Michigan Annual Conference has been called on March 7th to consider forwarding Protocol legislation on to GC 2020. Members must be registered by March 2.
Bishop David Bard has issued a call for a special session of the Michigan Annual Conference to consider sending Protocol legislation to General Conference. The special session will be held on Saturday, March 7, 2020, 1:30 pm – 4:30 pm at Goodrich Chapel on the campus of Albion College in Albion, Michigan. Albion College is a United Methodist-affiliated institution.
On January 3, 2020, a diverse, 16-member group of United Methodist bishops and other leaders offered a proposal that would preserve The United Methodist Church while allowing traditionalist-minded congregations to form a new denomination. The separating group would receive $25 million in United Methodist funds and would keep its local church properties.
The proposal has since been developed into legislation that on March 7th The Michigan Conference will consider sending to the 2020 General Conference. Click here to read the legislation.
For registration and full information about the March 7 Special Session, click here.
Under the rules of The Michigan Conference, general conference legislation is not amendable, so Annual Conference members at the special session will vote to send (or not to send) the legislation brought before them, as is, for action at the 2020 General Conference. It will be Michigan’s eight delegates to GC2020 who will be among those voting on the substance of the protocol and other legislation that comes before the body in Minneapolis, May 5-15.
“We are wanting to help General Conference do its best work,” Bard said of the denomination’s lawmaking assembly. “Our action will help ensure that the (protocol) legislation is at General Conference.”
The members of this special session of the Michigan Annual Conference will be all the clergy members of the conference along with the lay members or alternates who were last seated at the 2019 Annual Conference.
Online registration for the special session began on Monday, February 10th at 2020.MichiganUMC.org. Members must register online by Monday, March 2, 2020. No on-site registration will be available.
Additional information may be found in this pdf of the FAQ. For a web version of the FAQ, click here.
The Michigan Conference is not alone in this consideration. The Sierra Leone Conference will also consider Protocol legislation for forwarding to GC2020. Meeting March 4-8 for their regular annual conference gathering, Sierra Leone will take up the same question. Bishop John Yambasu oversees that conference and began the talks in the summer of 2019 that led to the protocol.
“As the one called by God to initiate the processes … I strongly believe that my annual conference must take a lead in affirming and owning the protocol,” he said by email.
Last Updated on October 30, 2023