Bishop Connie Mitchell Shelton calls for a virtual Special Session of the North Carolina Annual Conference on Saturday, October 7, beginning at 10 am.
The sole purpose of the called session is to ratify or not ratify the Disaffiliation Agreements of the approximately 20 local churches asking to disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church under the provisions of The Book of Discipline 2016, Paragraph 2553. On June 17, 2023, Bishop Shelton announced the call for this special session, which conforms to the disciplinary requirements in Paragraphs 369.6 and 603.5. The eligible churches inquired by the April deadline and have met the requirements to date to move forward for Annual Conference ratification. This session is the third opportunity the Board of Trustees has made available for churches to disaffiliate.
The virtual session will require members to register in advance to confirm their intent to participate. The membership of this called session is, per The Discipline, the membership of the Annual Conference elected for the June 2023 regular session.
Clergy, please log in to the Online Data Collection System and verify your “Lay Member of Annual Conference (Special Session – October 7, 2023)” contact is correct on the church’s Leadership tab. Any changes in that membership need to be updated by September 22, 2023.
All lay and clergy members of the Annual Conference will receive an invitation to register. The deadline for all Annual Conference members to register their intent to attend the virtual session will be 5 pm on Friday, September 29, 2023.
The agenda will include a call to order, an opening prayer, a reflection, an explanation of the Annual Conference’s online procedures, a motion from the Board of Trustees, a subsequent decision, a closing prayer, and an adjournment.
The Board of Trustees Report will include a list of the approximately 20 churches asking to disaffiliate and will be posted online at nccumc.org/scac2023 by the end of September.