For Immediate Release Monday, March 22, 2021 Bishops Reconsider May 8 Special Session of General Conference WASHINGTON, D.C. - The Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church met on Monday, March 22, 2021 in an additional meeting to consider pressing matters related to the Council’s work. After much conversation, the bishops reached a...
To the Laity and Clergy of the Iowa Annual Conference: Grace and peace in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. It was announced yesterday that the Commission on the General Conference has made the difficult decision to further postpone the 2020 General Conference because of safety issues related to the COVID-19 pandemic and ...
Press Release February 25, 2021 WASHINGTON, D.C. – In response to the further postponement of the 2020 General Conference, the Council of Bishops (COB) is calling a Special Session of the General Conference of The United Methodist Church (UMC) to be convened online on May 8, 2021. According to the call letter signed by COB President Bishop ...
Commission on the General Conference FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE February 25, 2021 General Conference Postponed to 2022 Meeting on February 20, the Commission on the General Conference made a decision to further postpone the 2020 General Conference until August 29 – September 6, 2022 in Minneapolis, Minn. as the COVID-19 pandemic continues to affect ...
General Conference and Jurisdictional Conference Delegates from the United States were called together for a public webinar February 13 to hear reports on church finances, the Episcopal Fund, options for General Conference, recommendations about the structure of Jurisdictions and Episcopal Areas, and a recommendation from the Council of Bishops ...
The Iowa Conference Ezekiel Team has begun meeting. This team intends to walk through 2021, together. They are charged with strategizing what a way forward can look like up to and after General Conference 2020 meets in the late summer of 2021. The team has been given three priorities in its charge from Bishop Laurie Haller. The three priorities ...
Commission on the General Conference FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE October 27, 2020 The Commission on the General Conference has named a Technology Study Team to explore the implications of options for accommodating full participation at General Conference including, but not limited to, the possibility of utilizing technology and online voting. The ...
By Heather Hahn April 21, 2020 | UM News After the pandemic-caused postponement, the new prospective dates for The United Methodist Church’s General Conference are Aug. 31-Sept. 10, 2021. The Council of Bishops disclosed the proposed dates, including a Council of Bishops meeting starting Aug. 26, in an email to its members and other church ...
Commission on the General Conference FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE March 23, 2020 Nashville, Tenn.: Subsequent to the announcement by the Executive Committee of the Commission on the General Conference that the 2020 General Conference will be postponed, the full Commission met March 21, 2020 to determine next steps to take in setting a new date. After ...
Dear friends, I am writing to let you know that the Executive Committee of the Commission on the General Conference was notified by the Minneapolis Convention Center today that they are restricting events at the venue through May 10, 2020, because of the spread of the coronavirus. Therefore, the Executive Committee announced that the General ...
Dear friends, It is with a heavy heart that I share with you that the Executive Committee of the Council of Bishops has decided to ask for a postponement of the 2020 General Conference due to the Coronavirus pandemic. It is not known yet when the General Conference, currently scheduled for Minneapolis in May, will be rescheduled. We know that ...
John Rothlisberger and Rev. Dr. Lanette Plambeck, two General Conference delegates, traveled to Nashville for a briefing about the plans that will be presented to the worldwide decision-making body of The United Methodist Church in May. For Plambeck there is “a call to do what feels faithful [which] is a good outcome.” “A lot of the potentials ...
Press Release from the College of Bishop, North Central Jurisdiction CHICAGO, ILLINOIS In a meeting last week in Chicago, the North Central Jurisdiction (NCJ) Committee on the Episcopacy and the NCJ College of Bishops have proposed to only elect one bishop during the NCJ Quadrennial Meeting, July 15-18 in Fort Wayne, Indiana. The two groups have ...
The second day of the briefing for the 2020 General Conference of The United Methodist Church was filled with personal stories and a focus upon the ways that the church makes a difference in people’s lives. While a portion of the time of the gathering for the nearly 500 delegates and communicators dealt with details of how the May General ...
To the Saints of God in Iowa, Grace and peace! As we experience snow and bitter cold in Iowa, I am reminded of the graciousness and warmth of spirit that I witness in every corner of our state. In the midst of uncertainty and anxiety about the future of The United Methodist Church, you are engaged in transformative ministries in your local ...
Delegates and communicators from across the United Methodist connection gathered in Nashville for the 2020 pre-General Conference briefing. Representatives from the denomimnation’s boards and agencies resourced the nearly 500 domestic and international church representatives. The event began with worship on Thursday morning, January 23. General ...
By Kathy L. Gilbert Jan. 10, 2020 | UM News It was love of The United Methodist Church that brought 16 — sometimes hostile — people to a point of agreement for a path forward for the worldwide church. Even though the agreement is to split, participants still talked about loving each other in a livestreamed discussion Jan. 13 to explain how the ...
Dear Sisters and Brothers in the Iowa Annual Conference, Grace and peace in the name of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ as this new year begins. I am writing to make you aware of the discernment of a “mediation team” that has been working for the past several months to bring a proposal to the delegates of the 2020 General Conference in ...
From: Iowa UM Delegation 2020 website The North Central Jurisdiction’s Mission Council brought together General and Jurisdictional conference delegates to hear from various agencies and to talk together about where we as a jurisdiction moving into 2020. Iowa’s Ryan Russell is the chair for the Mission Council and Lanette Plambeck was part of the ...
Delegates from the North Central Jurisdiction met on November 8-9 to talk about the state of the jurisdiction and discuss the denomination’s future in preparation for next year’s General and Jurisdictional Conferences. Members of the jurisdiction’s Mission Council, which oversees its ministries and budget, joined them. At the gathering, the clergy...
By: Christa Meland Next May, 15 months after the top legislative body of The United Methodist Church voted to adopt the Traditional Plan, delegates at the 2020 General Conference will consider alternative options for a way forward. (View all General Conference 2019 coverage here.) The Traditional Plan, approved at the 2019 Special Called Session...
The Iowa delegation of the North Central Jurisdictional Conference has the pleasure of presenting an Episcopal Nominee to the 2020 Iowa Annual Conference. This process involves receiving names of possible candidates now through October 31, 2019. On November 1, 2019, those candidates will then receive the “Episcopal Nominee Information” form and ...
A United Methodist group has submitted legislation that would dissolve The United Methodist Church and form four new global denominations instead. The legislation says the new Methodist expressions would be traditionalist, moderate, progressive and liberationist in orientation. The New Expressions Worldwide, or N.E.W., Plan is the work of ...
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE September 13, 2019 Connectional Table’s U.S. Regional Conference legislation now available. Chicago, IL – The Connectional Table is publishing its legislative petition to create a U.S. Regional Conference, as well as a one-page frequently asked questions sheet and a narrative booklet. The CT, who collaborated closely with ...
By Sam Hodges Aug. 19, 2019 | DALLAS (UM News) UMCNext, a coalition that includes Reconciling Ministries Network, Uniting Methodists and Mainstream UMC, has offered a plan that would end The United Methodist Church's restrictions against same-sex weddings and LGBTQ ordination and offer a gracious exit to local churches that disagree with those ...
By Sam Hodges Aug. 13, 2019 | DALLAS (UM News) The United Methodist Church’s conflict over homosexuality is irreconcilable and calls for amicable separation into different denominations, according to a 12-person group of centrists, traditionalists and progressives that began meeting in late June. “We’ve discovered The United Methodist Church can’...
CLERGY: Lanette Plambeck Katie Dawson LaTonya Calderon Chad Jennings Nathaniel Nims Alejandro Alfaro-Santiz Andrea Kraushaar Frederick Lewis Tyler Schwaller Joshua Steward Sean McRoberts Melissa Warren Clergy Alternates: Barrie Tritle Amy Johnson Matt German Scott Kober William Ranney Brian Oliver LAITY: John Rothlisberger Lynn Calvert ...
By Sam Hodges July 10, 2019 | UM News Two bishops propose turning The United Methodist Church into an umbrella organization for new, self-governing church groups that would offer different approaches on ordination of gay clergy and same-sex unions. Michigan Conference Bishop David Bard and Texas Conference Bishop Scott Jones began collaborating ...