Today begins the work of the legislative committees at General Conference. Much of this week’s work is centered around these committees and reviewing the 1,099 petitions that were submitted prior to 2020 and leading up to the current General Conference. Each legislative committee elects a chair, vice-chair and secretary. In addition, if the legislative committee votes to have subcommittees, chairs will be elected for those. Rev. Emily Kincaid, head delegate, was elected as secretary of the Ordained Ministry Committee.
UMC.org offers the following information about legislative committees:
Petitions are numbered and grouped by subject matter or the Book of Discipline section they address (missions, finance, local church, etc.) and assigned to legislative committees. The number of legislative committees at the 2024 gathering was increased from 12 to 14. The goal is to more evenly distribute the workload and meet the requirement that all submitted petitions receive a vote in committee.
A legislative committee votes to accept, accept with amendments, reject or refer the various petitions. Every delegate serves on a legislative committee and spends much of the first week of General Conference focusing on the committee’s assignments. These committees make it possible to review and provide recommendations on hundreds of petitions — something impossible for the full gathering of delegates. The postponed 2020 General Conference has received 1009 petitions for action.
Alabama-West Florida has eight delegates; therefore eight votes in the various legislative committees. The committees where AWF has votes are Church and Society 2, Conferences, Faith and Order, Financial Administrative, Ministries, Higher Education and Superintendency, Local Church and Ordained Ministry. In the other six committees without vote reserve delegates are observing to report back to the delegation about progress and noteworthy discussions. Three district superintendents present at the conference are also assisting with observing when able. Rev. Ashley Davis and Dr. Davis Saliba, reserve delegates, are also serving as parliamentarians in their committee rooms (General Administration and Judicial Administration).
The
three notable topics receiving significant attention have been classified as “the three R’s.” Regionalization, Removal of Harmful Language and Revised Social Principles. Yesterday, the Central Conference Matters Committee, who met prior to the start of General Conference,
advanced five petitions representing the bulk of proposed worldwide regionalization. That means the petitions have cleared the first hurdle faced by all legislation at General Conference — making it out of committee.
"Much of the denomination is not aware of the long hours of work that goes into each legislative committee," stated Dr. Cory Smith, delegate. "We are sorting through over 1,000 petitions in 14 committees to bring forth the most relevant and pertinent pieces of legislation to the floor next week. I am proud to be on a delegation that has been working on this since last fall so that we are prepared for the work ahead of us," he concluded.
This work will continue through Saturday evening where all committees must conclude their work. Petitions that come out of legislative committees will be on the plenary session agendas for discussion the week of Monday, April 29. The ADCA contains
all legislation submitted for consideration by the delegates. Interested persons who wish to follow a particular piece of legislation may do so through the
legislation tracker (an account must be created). Coverage will continue next week around legislation that is debated from the floor.
