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2008 General Conference
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2008 General Conference is underway
2008 General Conference in Fort Worth is underway. "A Future With Hope" is the theme as 1,000 delegates from around the world will conference together thru May 2 to set church policy and conduct other business.
Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher, Illinois Area, presented The Episcopal Address, which is given on behalf of the United Methodist Council of Bishops, on Thursday morning, acknowledging that, "there is a desperation in our times andan urgency about our mission as Christ's body in our new world."
She called the delegates and United Methodists around the world to a spirit of repentance and forgiveness, to overcome internal struggles in order to reclaim the capacity to become Hope for the World.
"In the name of God, we do harm to one another," she repeated, citing examples, and saying, "left, right, and middle, we are all guilty."
Through mutual forgiveness and willingness to commit to disciple-making, she asserted that the UMC can reclaim its momentum as God's agents for making disciples of Jesus Christ for the personal and social transformation of the world," she asserted.
General Conference is the top policy-making body of The United Methodist Church. Church law provides for a maximum of 1,000 delegates-half clergy, half lay. Each annual conference must have at least one delegate from each order. Beyond that, a conference's representation is based the number of lay members and clergy members in the conference.
The conference revises The Book of Discipline (book of church law) and Social Principles and adopts resolutions on current moral, social, public policy and economic issues. It also approves plans and budgets for churchwide programs for the next four years.
Click here to link to the United Methodist Church GC08 website.
Click this link to go to the 2008 General Conference NTC News page.
From the Conference floor (click on the underlined words to link to each item)
April 23
April 23 wrap-up , click here.
Episcopal Address, click here.
April 28
Dr. William Lawrence, Dean of the Perkins School of Theology was elected to the Judicial Counsel, the denomination's highest judicial authority. Matters of constitutionality come before the nine-member Council, which is composed of clergy and lay members.
NTC Photo Gallery
Link to A Space for Prayer at the General Conference.
2008 General Conference Delegates
North Texas Conference is represented by six clergy and six lay persons.
Lay Delegates
Mary Brooke Casad, Delegation Leader
Todd Bristow
Arthur Jones
Amy Forbus
Billy Ratcliff
Richard Hearne
Clergy Delegates
Rev. Kathleen Baskin Ball, Clergy Delegation Leader
Rev. Jim Dorff
Rev. Josephine Biggerstaff
Rev. Tyrone Gordon
Rev. Don Underwood
Rev. Clayton Oliphint
2008 Jurisdictional Conference Delegates
Clergy Delegates
Rev. Pat Beghtel-Mahle
Rev. John Rosenburg
Rev. Stan Copeland
Rev. Gary Mueller
Rev. Lisa Wolcott
Rev. Ron Henderson
Alternates
Rev. Fred Durham
Rev. April Bristow
Rev. Paul Escamilla
Lay Delegates
Pat Deal
Tim Crouch
Scott Smith
Tom Talbert
Alys Richards
Kay Yeager
Alternates
Tricia Loe
Frank Jackson
Ruth Robinson