PNW-RMN General Conference

General Conference News | Responses to GC2004

What is United Methodist General Conference?

The highest law and policy making body of our denomination is our General Conference. It is made up of equal numbers of lay and clergy church members, elected to meet every four years. In 2004 it will meet in the Pittsburgh Civic Center, above, the newest and the most modern civic center in America.

Here's how it works. Your congregation elected a lay member to join your pastor at your regional Annual Conference. That body in turn elects an equal number of lay and clergy to the Jurisdictional Conference to elect bishops. Half those members form the General Conference.

Even with 1,000 official members, General Conference is still just individual Christians from local congregations sharing beliefs, convictions, ideas and hopes with one another. But the policies they legislate become church law.

Information from citizen lobbyists like you is essential to all legislators, including General Conference members. Your personal witness about your gay family member can be of immense personal influence to our denomination's decision makers.

Our Witness as Parents Can Change Our Church

Responses to General Conference

• Evaluation of GC2004 by Bishop Jack M. Tuell
  August 5, 2004
• Kansas East Opposes General Conference Anti-Gay Stance
  July 24, 2004
• Response to Legal Action of General Conference - Nebraska AC
  July, 2004
• Observations About General Conference 2004 at Pittsburgh
  May 19, 2004

General Conference News

• Church Within A Church: Perceptions of General Conference
  May 27, 2004

• Letter to Church Within A Church Interested Persons
  May 11, 2004
• Media ignores Methodists' vote to affirm laws supporting biblical model of marriage; conservatives weigh schism
  May 10, 2004
• Methodists 'take a stand' at convention
  May 8, 2004
• Methodist Policies on Homosexuals Remain at Forefront in Pittsburgh
  May 6, 2004
• Watermarked: Witness of Assurance
  May 6, 2004
• It's Time to Stand Up
  May 5, 2004
• See 'Enemies' as Allies, Bishop Says
  May 5, 2004
• GC Daily Reports - Courier-Journal
  Peter Smith - Courier-Journal
• GC Daily Reports - Detroit Free Press
  David Crumm - Detriot Free Press
• GC Daily Reports - Mark E. Williams
  Pastor Mark E. Williams
• GC Daily Reports - United Methodist News Service
  Linda Bloom - United Methodist News Service
• GC Daily Reports - Yellowstone Conference
  Winifred Keefer - Yellowstone Conference
• Drops of Water - Affirmation GC Reports
  Affirmation
• United Methodist Church accused Washington of "racism"
  April 27, 2004
• Letter from Council of Bishops
  April 26, 2004

Views on Christian Communication

• In this connection, a conflict of covenants
  April 4, 2004

• General Conference delegates need to heed Wesley
  March 23, 2004
• Staying in Christian Conversation Talking
  March 20, 2004
• The Kingdom Coming
  February 18, 1991

Viewpoints to Consider

• Church Should Examine the Reason for Its Differences
  May 21, 2004

• Common Witness - General Conference 2004
  May, 2004
• Methodists Urge Civility Ahead of Debate on Gays
  April 27, 2004
• Delegates Rank Homosexuality as Top Issue Facing General Conference
  April 19, 2004
• Richard Clarke and the Bush Administration:
  Gay Rights Supporters and United Methodist Administration
  April 6, 2004
• Practicing Homosexuality, Heterosexuality, and Sexuality
  April 5, 2004
• What I would say to Karen Dammann
  April 2, 2004
• "How many Church Trials will United Methodism have before it can hear people cry?"
  April 2, 2004
• Pacific Northwest Delegates call for relationships of mutual care and trust
  April, 2004
• Reconciling Congregations are engaged in the core of the Christian and United Methodist mission
  April , 2004
• Sexual Orientation, and Gender Identity, and Marriage! Oh, My!
  March 31, 2004
• The Episcopalians? They are us:
  December 12, 2003
• Historic prejudices and gay Episcopal bishop
  2003
• Needed: A Continuing Sexual Revolution
  June 1, 1988