United Methodists from five continents addressed a wide range of challenging issues, including church structure and human sexuality, and engaged in an Act of Repentance toward indigenous people during their 10-day legislative gathering.   Meeting in the Tampa Convention Center, steps away from the waters of Tampa Bay, the 988 delegates recalled through worship, song and sermon the healing and transforming ministry of Jesus beside the Sea of Galilee.  Read more:

http://www.umc.org/site/apps/nlnet/content3.aspx?c=lwL4KnN1LtH&b=8057055&ct=11742349

A compromise restructure plan for The United Methodist Church, adopted earlier this week by the 2012 General Conference, was declared “unconstitutional” May 4.

That unanimous ruling came from the nine-member United Methodist Judicial Council, which had been asked by General Conference to make a declaratory decision on the constitutionality of “Plan UMC.”

“Under the Constitution, the creation and establishment of general Church board and agencies, the fixing of their structure, the determination of their functions, duties and responsibilities, and the establishing of Church priorities are legislative functions reserved to the General Conference alone,” said Judicial Council Decision No. 1210. “These legislative functions may not be delegated.”

The establishment of a “General Council for Strategy and Oversight” under Plan UMC does not meet the test of constitutionality because it intrudes into the constitutional authority of the Council of Bishops for general oversight of the denomination, the court found, and “commingles” the role of the bishops and the strategy and oversight council.

For more go to: http://www.gc2012conversations.com/2012/05/04/judicial-council-voids-plan-umc/

The new president of The United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops gave a nod to the challenges and difficulties of the 2012 General Conference during the closing worship service late May 4 at the Tampa Convention Center.   “Many of us, sisters and brothers, leave hurt,” said Bishop Rosemarie Wenner of Germany. “We are called to go and make disciples, (even) in these mixed emotions we are in.”   Preaching her homily on the closing verses of Mark’s Gospel following a 10:30 p.m. adjournment, Wenner said that Christ’s call to go out into the world applies to each and every one of us, no matter our situation.

For more go to:
http://www.gc2012conversations.com/2012/05/04/bishop-encourages-delegates-during-final-worship/

The 2012 United Methodist General Conference spent the last hours of its last day May 4 scrambling to downsize agency boards, after the denomination’s top court ruled the “Plan UMC” restructuring legislation unconstitutional.

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’s 13 general agencies had submitted to reduce the size of their boards, independent of the Call to Action legislation and other comprehensive restructuring plans.

The result: the delegates shrank agency boards by 266 members, cutting the number of board members for the 13 agencies nearly in half.

For more go to:
http://www.gc2012conversations.com/2012/05/04/with-no-plan-umc-gc2012-shrinks-agency-boards-2/

By a vote of 567 to 384, the 2012 United Methodist General Conference gave tentative approval to a slightly amended version of “Plan UMC” to reconfigure general agencies and downsize their boards.

It will be up to the lawmaking assembly to give final approval after the General Council on Finance and Administration, the denomination’s finance agency, reports on the plan’s financial implications.

The May 2 vote follows days of ups and downs when at one point, it looked like General Conference might conclude without proposing any restructuring proposal.

Read more: http://www.gc2012conversations.com/2012/05/02/plan-umc-gets-tentative-approval/

For more GC information go to:

http://www.umc.org/site/c.lwL4KnN1LtH/b.7989685/k.1FD3/General_Conference_2012.htm   or NC Conference GC pages:  http://nccumc.org/gc2012/

By a vote of 889 to 20, General Conference made United Methodist Women an autonomous organization within the United Methodist Church May 1 during its quadrennial meeting Tampa, Fla. The historic vote separates the national policymaking body of women organized for mission within the denomination from the church’s mission agency for the first time in more than 70 years.

“This is great result for United Methodist Women and for the church and positions us for the next 143 years of mission,” said Harriett Jane Olson, chief executive of the national United Methodist Women organization.

To read more go to: http://new.gbgm-umc.org/umw/news/press/item/index.cfm?id=876

 By Yvette Moore

For more GC information go to: http://nccumc.org/gc2012/ or NC Conference GC pages:  http://nccumc.org/gc2012/