{"id":870,"date":"2012-04-30T13:56:37","date_gmt":"2012-04-30T20:56:37","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/gc2012\/?p=870"},"modified":"2012-04-30T13:56:37","modified_gmt":"2012-04-30T20:56:37","slug":"gc2012-set-aside-bishop-proposal-fails","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/gc2012-set-aside-bishop-proposal-fails\/","title":{"rendered":"GC2012: Set-aside bishop proposal fails"},"content":{"rendered":"

Carlos S. Cao of the Philippines speaks to the issue of a set-aside\u00a0bishop during floor debate at the 2012 United Methodist General\u00a0Conference in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

By Neil Caldwell*\u00a0\u00a0<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n

TAMPA, Fla. (UMNS) \u00a0The 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.<\/p>\n

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\u2019s constitution.<\/p>\n

The petition stated that the council \u201cmay elect from its active membership a full-time president\u201d who also would \u201cbe relieved from residential responsibilities\u201d while in that office.<\/p>\n

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 \u201cthe face of The United Methodist Church,\u201d whether that was the intention or not.<\/p>\n

Goodpaster repeated several points that he and other bishops have stressed throughout the process. \u201cThis position is to guide and focus the Council of Bishops and to give more time and energy to that.\u201d<\/p>\n

In response to a question from a Liberian delegate as to whether there was anything wrong with the church\u2019s current system, Goodpaster said there was really no change in church polity. \u201cThis office would be a person who would guide the mission of the church,\u201d he said. \u201cAs we live into being a global church, we need to be totally focused and aligned.\u201d<\/p>\n

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

Delegates also defeated a substitute motion to create a study commission to bring back a report on the proposal in 2016. \u201cIt\u2019s been thought about for decades,\u201d 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.<\/p>\n

After the vote Goodpaster pointed out that the council has already taken steps to\u00a0reform its internal structure and leadership<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe Council of Bishops will continue to devote ourselves to the mission of the church as servants of Christ Jesus,\u201d Goodpaster told United Methodist News Service. \u201cThe 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.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe know that the demands placed upon the president of the council will continue to expand,\u201d he continued. \u201cWe 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.\u201d<\/p>\n

*Caldwell is editor of the Virginia United Methodist Advocate and a member of the United Methodist News Service team at General Conference.<\/p>\n

News media contact: Maggie Hillery, Tampa, Fla., (813) 574-4837, until May 4; after May 4, (615) 742-5470 ornewsdesk@umcom.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Carlos S. Cao of the Philippines speaks to the issue of a set-aside\u00a0bishop during floor debate at the 2012 United Methodist General\u00a0Conference in Tampa, Fla. A UMNS photo by John C. Goodwin.\u00a0 By Neil Caldwell*\u00a0\u00a0 TAMPA, Fla. (UMNS) \u00a0The General Conference on April 30 decided not to approve a petition that would have created a […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":871,"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-870","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\/04\/phillipines-delegate.jpg?fit=640%2C425&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-e2","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870","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=870"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":872,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/870\/revisions\/872"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/871"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=870"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=870"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=870"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}