Friends, it’s been a long day!

While we did have some petitions and resolutions to consider, today’s primary task was to elect those persons who will serve on our commissions over the next six years. For those not familiar with our process, these commissions help to accomplish the work of the general church between sessions of annual conference. They make administrative decisions, develop resources for the local church, and organize us to be more effective together. Examples of this are: our Ministry and Higher Education Commission approves our seminary partners and gives guidance on applying the ordination standards in various contexts, our Kingdom Advancement committee mobilizes our church for mission and ministry across the globe, and our General Conference Commission begins the hard work of planning our next General Conference in 2032. They do important and vital work.

The challenge is that these elections take a ton of time to complete, and there are often complications with our voting devices. So, we spent most of the day sitting while waiting for votes to come in or for technology to be adjusted.

Thankfully, we completed our work and also were able to pass a few petitions. Most of these were petitions to be “rejected”. Sometimes a petition is rejected because the committee feels it is not a good idea. However, often there are multiple petitions dealing with the same paragraph of the Book of Doctrines and Discipline, so the committee will “reject” one in favor of another one and then still be free to include language from the one that was rejected. However, committees MUST act on all legislation properly brought before them. So, these actions were necessary. Also, Ragan got to sit in during our last session of the evening and vote, so that was fun!

Perhaps the most significant legislation we passed today was a revised and updated set of practices for judicial procedures. This is the part of the Book of Doctrines and Discipline that we hope we NEVER have to use; however, when issues rise to the level of disciplinary action, we need a fair process for our church.

Tomorrow is going to be a BIG day. We will consider some important revisions to our educational standards. We will vote on a theological statement about our covenant life together. We will decide if we want a new process to elect bishops (while this year’s process led to the election of eight outstanding bishops, it was complicated and needed revision). And most importantly, we will (hopefully) adopt our Articles of Religion, which will “prescribe the normative doctrinal standards of the Global Methodist Church.” Please be in prayer for us!