The Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference is just days away. Below you will find helpful notes and links whether you are attending or following from within the conference. E-mail updates will be sent during the conference to those who have subscribed to the list. Should you wish to subscribe, click here and select the first check box and complete the relevant information.
(Dr. Steve Furr) - The five jurisdictional conferences in the United States will meet at the same time July 18-20, 2012. Jurisdictional conferences are held once every four years in the same year as the general conference. Equal numbers of laity and clergy, elected by the annual conferences, will be delegates. The principal business during jurisdictional conference is the election of bishops. This year the Southeastern Jurisdiction will elect five new bishops from 15 candidates. Candidates are generally nominated by an annual conference or endorsed by jurisdictional conference delegates. Any United Methodist ordained elder may be elected bishop by any jurisdictional conference. Each jurisdiction establishes the percentage of votes needed for election. Voting by ballot continues until someone receives the required number of votes. Full commentary here.
The agenda to the 2012 SEJ Jurisdictional Conference has been updated. Click here to view.
The AWF delegation round robins will be held in Shackford Hall, room number 13 on the first floor. To see the complete schedule, click here.
Seating for delegates will be in section 4, rows A-D. Please contact Dr. Steve Furr if you did not receive your seat assignment.
Thursday evening, July 20th at 9pm (depending on duration of elections), all delegates, staff and friends are invited to welcome our Bishop in Lambuth 106.
See this document for helpful information about this year's conference registration and check-in process.
Dr. Larry Bryars and his wife, Vicki, would like to invite all Alabama-West Florida attendees to the SEJ Conference to join them for an “Ice Cream Social” on Wednesday night, July 18th at 9pm, Lambuth Hall, Room 106. This is their way of saying “thanks” to all our AWF friends for the support and prayers they have received this year.
The attention of the denomination will be focused beginning July 18 on the jurisdictional conferences, where 11 new U.S. bishops are expected to be elected in three jurisdictions. Like General Conference, the worldwide legislative gathering that met April 24 to May 4 in Tampa, Fla., jurisdictional conferences meet once every four years. Half the delegates will be lay people, and half will be clergy. The Book of Discipline, the denomination’s lawbook, stipulates that each annual conference is entitled to send twice the number of delegates to jurisdictional conferences that it sent to General Conference. There were 606 delegates from U.S. annual conferences at the 2012 General Conference. Full story here.
There are now 44 candidates for the episcopacy. Learn who they are. Click here for list.
The live streaming schedule can be found here. To view the live stream, go to www.lakejunaluska.com/streaming.
The SEJ Facebook page can be found here or by going to www.facebook.com/sejumc.
To follow the Twitter conversation, use the hash tag #SEJUMC or go to https://twitter.com/sejumc.
To access the SEJ Web site, go to http://www.sejumc.org.
A UMNS Photo by Bill Norton.