2008 General Conference
Katherine Kim
2008 General Conference was held at the convention center of Ft. Worth, Texas from
4/23/08 -5/2/08. The theme was “A Future with Hope-Making Disciples for Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World.” About 6,500 people attended on the first night of opening plenary..
General Conference is the highest legislative body of United Methodist Church. It meets every 4 years and decides the church's discipline and rules along with various social justice issues of church’s position.
The total expense for this General Conference was budgeted for $6.6 million. The delegates get reimbursed all of their expenses. The delegates from the Central Conference which are from outside of U.S. cost more than expected. Among the total delegate of 992, 278 delegates came from the Central Conference. There are 13 Korean American delegates in the 13 with clergy and lay together. I am a lay delegate from
Ca/Nevada Conference: 5 clergy and 5 lay.
Holy Conferencing set the tone for General Conference of 2008. Bishop Janice Riggle Huie, the president of the Council of Bishops, said ‘’Holy Conferencing focuses on prayer, rational, and respectful conversation, and a belief that with God all things are possible”.
John Wesley’s three simple rules also apply to this. Do no harm, do good, and stay in love with God. Racism is not tolerated with open minds, open hearts, and open doors.
The Church's focus on four areas for the next four years are poverty, health, people, and leaders.
1. Engaging in ministry with the poor,
2. Creating new places for new people and renewing existing congregations,
3. Stamping out diseases of poverty by improving health globally, and
4. Developing principles Christian leaders for the church and the world.
We can help to reduce deaths caused by the diseases of poverty; HIV/Aids,Malaria,
and Tuberculosis. There is a five million dollar grant from the United Nations Foundation with the support from the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation boosting the Global Health Initiative to fight malaria and other diseases of poverty. "We hope to use this $5 million to support a fund-raising and educational campaign to help prevent deaths related to malaria, HIV/Aids and tuberculosis” said Bishop Bickerton. "The goal is to raise $100 million over the next several years for malaria programs in Africa and the Global Aids Fund”.
Bishop Bickerton announced that the "Nothing But Nets" anti-malaria campaign has raised more than $20 million since it began in 2006.
"Nothing But Nets" is a part of the church’s Global Health Initiative, which focuses on
fighting diseases of poverty and promoting congregational health and wholeness.
The United Methodist Church is one of the founding partners of the campaign, which fights malaria by purchasing and distributing insecticide-treated sleeping nets in Africa. A donation of $10 covers the cost of delivering one net and teaching a family how to protect themselves from malaria-carrying mosquitoes.
About 1,500 petitions were received and 13 legislative committees will study and vote for agreement, with minor changes, and for/against. Agreed items go to the consent calendar to the plenary. Against items go directly to the plenary and discussed at the floor according to the Roberts Rule of Order. All the financial implication items are to be discussed at the plenary.
I was with Global Ministries Legislative committee which dealt with Women’s Division, Mission, Immigration, Israel & Palestine, Tibet, Taiwan, E.Timor, West Papua, Comfort Women, etc. I was very much interested in Comfort Women’s compensation package because I have been working on this issue since the year 2000.
642 Million budget was approved for the next Quadrennium 2009-2012. The budget is 4.8 percent higher that the 2005-2008. This budget favors young generation and minorities, especially Korean, Hispanic, Latin America, pacific Islander, and Africa. The Korean National plan was budgeted for 3.3 million. The Korean plan concentrated on leadership and next generation education.
The homosexuality issue was left the same as 2004 which is saying that the church is not recognizing homosexuality issues and homosexuality is not compatible with the teaching of the church. The tide is small (501 vs. 417). There were peaceful demonstrations.
On the next date, Bishop Hee Soo Chung gave a sermon about compromising. He said that holiness and hospitality are both very valuable. But if we are on one side, we are looking at the other side with biased opinion. We only look at our view point. We need to live together with holiness and hospitality even we have a different opinion on homosexuality issues.
From September 1, 2012, four Jurisdictions will have one less bishop. Western Jurisdiction will go from 6 to 5, Northeast Jurisdiction 10 to 9, Southeast Jurisdiction 10 to 9, and North Central Jurisdiction from 11 to 10. The South Central Jurisdiction will remain as 13. The money left over from this cut will be used for the mission fund of Europe, Philippines, and Africa. There was some opposition on this arguing that we in U.S. need more leadership. The membership and offering are going down, and this is not the time to do it. The main problem the church is facing is that while the membership and funding are going down, the number of clergy which are needed to support is increasing.
Ms. Angela Brown from San Francisco Glide Memorial Church and a judge from Philippines are on the Judicial Council. This will benefit the Western Jurisdiction greatly.
The Liberian President Ellen Johnson Sirleaf delivered an address that was a highlight of the conference. She said that “This is a special honor for me and I am the first African leader and the first female president to address the General Conference of The United Methodist Church” She said that they are facing many challenges, but working together with the government and the help from United Methodist Church will do a great job after 14 years of Civil War.
At the Western Jurisdiction Conference from July 15-19,2008. in Portland, Oregon, We will be electing two new bishops. Bishop Beverly Shamana from Ca/Nevada is retiring and Ed Paup from Pacific Northwest became new Deputy General Secretary of General Board of Global Ministry.
I hope this article about General Conference will encourage more people to attend California/Nevada Annual Conference and 2012 General Conference in Tampa, Florida.
Shalom,
Katherine Kim
Treasurer of the Core Planning Group
Women's Division director
Western Jurisdiction
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