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A key culture shift for The United Methodist Church that the Connectional Table (CT) is engaging in partnership with the Council of Bishops, the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters, general agencies and others, is the shift from a U.S.-centered denomination to one that is more fully worldwide.
The CT organizes its work around a vision for a worldwide church as articulated in ¶125 from the Book of Discipline: “Integrally holding connectional unity and local freedom, we seek to proclaim and embody the gospel in ways responsible to our specific cultural and social context while maintaining a vital web of interactive relationships.” We live into this vision as we fulfill the mission of The UMC.
“Integrally holding connectional unity and local freedom, we seek to proclaim and embody the gospel in ways responsible to our specific cultural and social context while maintaining a vital web of interactive relationships.” (Book of Discipline, ¶125)
In April 2019, the CT approved bringing a legislative proposal to the 2020 General Conference to create a United States Regional Conference comprising the current U.S. jurisdictional conferences and the geographical boundaries congruent with the territory of U.S. annual conferences. Naming this new structure for U.S. governance a regional conference rather than a central conference acknowledges the painful, racist history and still existing wound associated with the former Central Jurisdiction in the U.S.
Creation of a U.S. Regional Conference will provide an organizational structure for the U.S. to have parity with existing central conferences for doing work on the adaptable portions of The Book of Discipline.
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