While the coming legislative assembly still faces multiple proposals to split the denomination after decades of debate over LGBTQ inclusion, a separation of sorts is already happening. The assembly, originally planned for 2020 in Minneapolis, is now scheduled for April 23-May 3, 2024, in Charlotte, North Carolina.Ī new location is not the only change resulting from General Conference’s delay. That is what we are called to do.”įor the past three years, the commission’s planning has been hampered by the COVID pandemic and resulting travel complications - leading the commission to postpone General Conference three times. “But we need to keep carrying the light of Christ into this world that needs it. “We are weathering this storm, and hopefully, it’s coming to an end soon,” she added. “None of us sitting here can say the last few years have been easy,” she acknowledged at the beginning of the meeting. Kim Simpson, the commission’s chair, said that focus on God is critical, especially in this tumultuous time. That international commission gathered May 21-24 for its first in-person meeting since 2019 to determine some of the final details for next year’s General Conference. The theme for the gathering will be “…and know that I am God” from Psalm 46. Making sure United Methodist delegates, bishops and others can come together for the denomination’s top legislative assembly is the responsibility of the Commission on the General Conference.

(Image by United Methodist Communications.) The updated logo for the postponed 2020 General Conference to be held April 23-at Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina. Hundreds of these visitors also need visas just to attend. They speak 10 languages, have various dietary needs, require multiple hotel rooms and must be able to come together to pray, worship and make decisions that affect millions of United Methodists. But imagine trying to bring more than a thousand people together from four continents for a gathering that lasts two weeks. Planning a big family wedding with dozens of people coming in for a weekend is challenge enough. The pandemic and church disaffiliations already are having an impact on the coming General Conference as well as the commission that plans it.That includes ensuring access to visas and arranging for travel, lodging and food for hundreds of delegates and bishops from four continents.The group that plans The United Methodist Church’s big legislative assembly is putting together the final details for holding the long-postponed General Conference next year.Beside him are Don Reasoner, who leads interpretation at General Conference, and Mills Maliwa, a commission member from South Africa. Hill is the chair of the commission’s program committee. Lynn Hill, retired elder in the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, preaches at the closing worship of the Commission on the General Conference meeting in Florence, Kentucky.

Umc general conference 2019 live stream