Article
IV of the Constitution of the United Methodist Church calls annual conferences
the “fundamental
bodies of the Church.” (Discipline ¶11)
According to Discipline the purpose of the annual conference
is “to
make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world (this is the
mission of the whole UMC according to ¶120)
by equipping its local churches for ministry and by providing a connection for
ministry beyond the local church; all to the glory of God.”
(Discipline ¶601)
We
are in the Iowa Annual Conferences which includes the state of Iowa and one
church in Illinois (Wesley UMC in East Dubuque.) However, there may be more than one annual
conference in a state, or one annual conference may be made up of more than one
state. It may also work the same way for
areas outside of the United States. The
map at left shows the annual conferences in the United States.
As
the name implies, annual conference is a meeting that takes place once each
year. (In Iowa in early June; in 2014, June 7-9.) At this meeting we gather for worship,
fellowship, and learning. We also
receive reports about various ministries and conduct business sessions to
approve budgets, ministry plans, rules and policies of the annual conference,
and resolutions related to social and moral issues.
Membership
in the annual conference includes all of the clergy, active and retired, and an
equal number of lay members. Each charge
elects one lay member for each pastor serving the charge. (Our three church
charge elects one lay member to balance me as the pastor.) Retired clergy and other clergy serving
outside of the local church (chaplains, staff positions, etc.) are balanced by
lay persons who are in certain positions of conference and district leadership,
including United Methodist Men and United Methodist Women, as well as youth and
young adult members. If there are still
clergy left to be balanced, each district will be assigned a number of equalization
members. The district will then assign
equalization members to charges with larger membership which may be
underrepresented. (For 2014 our charge has been assigned two equalization
members, which, in addition to our regular member, makes our total of lay
members three. They are Carol Matta, Dee
Shope, and Terri Goodhart. Each of them represents the charge as a whole, not
just one church.)
For
almost all of the business and activities of the annual conference session the
clergy and laity meet together as one body of equals. However, the clergy are required to gather
separately in an additional session called clergy, or executive, session. During this closed session ordained clergy
members vote on clergy candidates, handle any issues of clergy discipline, and
vote to grant retirement, disability and other changes in clergy status. The Discipline calls these “matters of ordination, character, and
conference relations of clergy.” (For clergy, membership is in the annual
conference, not the local church. The
annual conference is the primary place where clergy receive support and
accountability.) While the clergy are
in clergy session the lay members sometimes also gather in laity session.
In
addition to being an annual meeting, the annual conference is also a structure
which supports churches and persons in mission and ministry throughout the
year. We will talk more about how the
annual conference works throughout the year in the next article.
