General Conference is the top legislative assembly of The United Methodist Church. Composed of a maximum of 1,000 elected delegates (half clergy and half lay), the body meets every four years to set church policy and speak on behalf of the denomination regarding social and moral issues of the day. The results of General Conference action will revise the denomination’s book of law, The Book of Discipline, and refine its Book of Resolutions.

Through General Conference, the connectional nature of The United Methodist Church is most clearly represented and realized as delegates and visitors from around the world worship and conference together in Christian love and discernment, reflecting the ministry and mission of the denomination’s more than 12 million members. For more information visit the 2012 General Conference page at UMC.org.

NC Conference Related Info

General Conference 2012 information will be posted here. Check back frequently for updates!

• Exploring General Conference 2012
  (EGC101) –  a free, basic online course that outlines how General Conference operates and how it can affect the lives of United Methodists everywhere.
• Service of Repentance at GC 2012
  At the 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Florida, delegates will participate in “An Act of Repentance toward Healing Relationships with Indigenous Peoples.” The service is intended to begin the process of reconciliation between The United Methodist Church and indigenous peoples. It will take place on Friday, April 27, at 7:30 p.m.

NC Conference Posts

• 2012 GC Wrap Up

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 Read more »

• Judicial Council Voids Plan UMC

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 Read more »

• Bishop Encourages Delegates During Final Worship

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 Read more »

• GC2012 Shrinks Agency Boards

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 Read more »

• Plan UMC Gets Tentative Approval

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 Read more »

• General Conference Approves United Methodist Women Autonomy

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 Read more »