{"id":1229,"date":"2012-05-04T18:40:07","date_gmt":"2012-05-05T01:40:07","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=1229"},"modified":"2012-05-04T19:59:09","modified_gmt":"2012-05-05T02:59:09","slug":"with-no-plan-umc-gc2012-shrinks-agency-boards","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/with-no-plan-umc-gc2012-shrinks-agency-boards\/","title":{"rendered":"With no Plan UMC, GC2012 shrinks agency boards"},"content":{"rendered":"

Members of the Virginia delegation huddle to discuss possible next steps after the United Methodist Judicial Council ruled the proposed “Plan UMC” for church restructuring to be unconstitutional on May 4 during the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose.<\/em><\/p>\n

by\u00a0Heather Hahn<\/a>*<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. (UMNS) \u2014 The 2012 United Methodist General Conference spent the last hours of its last day May 4 scrambling to downsize agency boards, after the denomination\u2019s top court ruled\u00a0the \u201cPlan UMC\u201d restructuring legislation unconstitutional<\/a>.<\/p>\n

After months of denomination-wide talk about agency reconfiguration, delegates tried to salvage some part of the movement for structural change. They took up petitions that eight of the denomination\u2019s 13 general agencies had submitted to reduce the size of their boards, independent of the\u00a0Call to Action<\/a>\u00a0legislation and other comprehensive restructuring plans.<\/p>\n

The result: the delegates shrank agency boards by 266 members, cutting the number of board members for the 13 agencies nearly in half.<\/p>\n

The approved legislation included petitions from the United Methodist Boards of Discipleship, Global Ministries and Higher Education and Ministry. Also included were petitions from the General Council on Finance and Administration, United Methodist Men and the churchwide Commissions on Religion and Race; the Status and Role of Women; and Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns.<\/p>\n

The delegates also approved legislation to fold the United Methodist Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns, the denomination\u2019s ecumenical agency, into the Council of Bishops.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think it\u2019s good we\u2019re reducing the size of the boards,\u201d said Karen Millar, a lay delegate from Arkansas who had helped develop the Plan B and Plan UMC restructuring proposals. \u201cI am so proud of the boards because they did that before we came to General Conference, except for the (United Methodist Board of Church and Society). But I am really disappointed the plan failed because 60 percent voted for it, and there was a lot of perfecting over the last two weeks. I am astounded.\u201d<\/p>\n

Charlotte (N.C.) Area Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster, outgoing Council of Bishops president, sought to comfort a frustrated assembly at the start of the night session. \u201cGod always provides a way,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

Emotional two weeks<\/strong><\/p>\n

The General Conference worked late into the final night of its 10-day gathering after nearly two weeks of wild ups and downs for various restructuring plans.<\/p>\n

Three groups had come to General Conference with plans to consolidate agencies and shrink their boards. They included two officially submitted petitions to the lawmaking assembly \u2014 the\u00a0Call to Action plan<\/a>, endorsed by the Council of Bishops and Connectional Table, and \u201cA New Administrative Order,\u201d<\/a>\u00a0by the progressive caucus Methodist Federation for Social Action. A third ad hoc group had drafted another alternative,\u00a0UMC Plan B<\/a>, as a substitute motion.<\/p>\n

But after three full days of deliberations, the General Administration Legislative Committee, which included proponents off all three plans, adjourned nearly a half hour past its deadline\u00a0without recommending any comprehensive plan to consolidate agencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Plan UMC came together in the next two days when supporters of Call to Action and Plan B worked late into the night together with central conference delegates to\u00a0develop a compromise<\/a>. The full assembly\u00a0approved a slightly amended version of that compromise by a 60 percent majority on May 2<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The May 4 announcement of the Judicial Council\u2019s decision came in the late afternoon just before a team of Connectional Table members, Plan UMC drafters and two young people was set to deliver its report resolvinginconsistencies in the Plan UMC legislation<\/a>. The news sent shockwaves throughout the assembly. Some delegates gasped; others started muttering, and still others began walking out of the room.<\/p>\n

\u201cI want to encourage you, if I may have this moment of personal privilege, to work the rest of the evening more concerned with quality than concerned with getting something done,\u201d the Rev. Fitzgerald \u201cGere\u201d Reist, the General Conference secretary, told the delegates before they recessed for dinner.<\/p>\n

The General Conference\u2019s Committee on Agenda and Calendar spent the dinner break trying to find a way to bundle the remaining legislation together.<\/p>\n

Still the late-night session left many frustrated that General Conference could not accomplish even broader change.<\/p>\n

\u201cMy opinion is the problem is not with the size of the general boards,\u201d said Judy Benson, an Oklahoma lay delegate, Connectional Table member and proponent of Call to Action. \u201cThe problem is we haven\u2019t been able to figure out a way to work together towards the common goal of making disciples. \u2026 Limiting the boards may save some bucks, but it\u2019s not going to change the direction of the church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Not a surprise to some<\/strong><\/p>\n

One of the critiques offered of Plan UMC was that it seemed similar to the old General Council on Ministries structure that the current Connectional Table replaced in 2004.<\/p>\n

The Judicial Council ruled the original legislation that created the General Council of Ministries unconstitutional, stating that the denomination\u2019s constitution did not make provision for a single body to assume the authority reserved for the General Conference in guiding the work of the church.<\/p>\n

Similarly, the Judicial Council\u2019s decision on May 4 said Plan UMC gave too much authority to the General Council for Strategy and Oversight, which would have had oversight of four agencies and been able to direct the General Council on Finance and Administration to \u201cwithhold funding.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe broad delegation of legislative authority and the commingling of the role of oversight so inextricably permeate the Plan as to render it constitutionally unsalvageable,\u201d said the court\u2019s ruling.<\/p>\n

Some delegates had different misgivings about the restructuring plans. \u201cI don\u2019t know what agenda was driving this,\u201d said the Rev. Kavul Vary-Mway of South Congo. \u201cSo I did not vote for any of it.\u201d<\/p>\n

Tracy Merrick, who helped draft the Methodist Federation for Social Action plan, expressed hope after the Judicial Council\u2019s decision.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think this gives us the opportunity to spend more time and do this well,\u201d he said, \u201cand come back to General Conference with a plan that will be more inclusive, better structured and better considered.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

*Hahn is a multimedia reporter for United Methodist News Service.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Members of the Virginia delegation huddle to discuss possible next steps after the United Methodist Judicial Council ruled the proposed “Plan UMC” for church restructuring to be unconstitutional on May 4 during the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by Mike DuBose. by\u00a0Heather Hahn* TAMPA, Fla. (UMNS) \u2014 The 2012 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1230,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-1229","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-umns"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/05\/Restructure_Virginiac.jpg?fit=800%2C534&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-jP","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1229"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1231,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1229\/revisions\/1231"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1230"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1229"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1229"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1229"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}