Before anyone could get a second cup of coffee down, Bishop Mande Muyombo emphasized to members of the Connectional Table the importance of their work.
“The Connectional Table must watch out and put the poor, the widows, the immigrants, the homeless, minorities, the sick, the disabled, the rejected, those affected by wars, violence, hurricanes, natural disasters and health pandemics … as their priorities,” he said on the first day of the Oct. 24-27 meeting at First United Methodist Church, Dallas.
“Or else Christ Jesus will have no choice than to overturn the table.”
Your support of The General Administration Fund apportionment implements trustworthy administrative oversight like the General Conference sessions.
About 80% of the current board members are new.
The Connectional Table helped develop the regionalization legislation approved by General Conference.
The group works with the General Council on Finance and Administration board in approving annual agency spending plans and developing the four-year denominational budget that goes before General Conference delegates.
Among the immediate responsibilities of the Connectional Table is looking at the next steps that will be needed if a regionalization plan is passed by a two-thirds total vote of annual conference lay and clergy voters next year. That would include figuring out what legislation should be offered to General Conference in 2028 that would make the process of putting regionalization into effect easier.
The Connectional Table also needs to deliver a visioning statement for the church to offer to the Council of Bishops.
The tendency to act as the moral authority for what people of other cultures should believe or do, based on a supposition of superiority, needs to be discarded, Scott said. They are symptoms of the colonial thinking espoused by empires.
Instead, Scott said United Methodist interactions with other cultures, regardless of the prosperity and cultural differences, need to be conducted with equality and respect. If that is not done, a colonialist outlook can result in U.S.-centric attitudes that demean the very people that Methodists wish to help.
Connectionalism and regionalization are ways to address these ills, Scott said.
“The work of shaping the future is work that belongs to those of us who have decided to remain. The work ahead of us is work for those who are committed to being connected to one another.”
The regionalization plan passed at General Conference aims to give The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions equal standing in decision-making.
To come to fruition, regionalization requires amending The United Methodist Church’s constitution. The Council of Bishops expects all annual conferences to vote on the amendments by the end of 2025. The bishops plan to tally the votes when they hold their spring meeting in 2026.
“All regional conferences share the same constitution, doctrinal standards and Social Principles enacted by General Conference,” Scott said. “These are not adaptable by regional conferences. The Council of Bishops, Judicial Council, general agencies and General Conference are fully maintained.”
Members of the Connectional Table said the information they received at the meetings was valuable.
excerpt from a story by Jim Patterson, UM News reporter in Nashville, Tennessee
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