After a 12-month wait, Michigan’s petitions to General Conference are now before Legislative Committees for action next week in Portland.
KAY DeMOSS
Editor-Writer, Michigan Area
Where does the Book of Discipline come from anyway?
It comes from people, churches, and annual conferences … like those in Michigan.
It’s been a year since the Detroit and West Michigan Annual Conferences acted on petitions to be sent on to General Conference. The votes on those petitions will soon be in as Legislative Committees begin to organize and train to do their work.
Starting May 12 those Legislative Committees will process the eight Michigan petitions sent to Portland along with the almost 1,000 other petitions that were submitted. Any pastor, lay person, local church, annual conference or agency may send a petition to General Conference.
All petitions were listed and made available on the pages of the Advance Edition of the Daily Christian Advocate. This is the body of material that all General Conference delegates have been reading their way through in the weeks leading up to their arrival in Portland.
Now Legislative Committees will debate those petitions, and determine whether to approve, amend, combine or disapprove them for recommendation to the full body of delegates.
All delegates, including those from Detroit and West Michigan Conferences will spend the next four days in Legislative Committee meetings. The fruits of their labors will appear in The Daily Christian Advocate, appearing as “Calendar Items” that will come before the full General Conference for action starting May 16.
The West Michigan Conference has seven petitions in the works, six of them having to do with human sexuality. The seventh deals with investments in illegal settlements in Palestine. The petition from the Detroit Conference regards equalization of Annual Conference membership.
The Daily Christian Advocate becomes the official “journal” of General Conference. Calendar Items adopted by the General Conference are then printed in the Book of Discipline or the Book of Resolutions.
Last Updated on December 27, 2022