General Conference is over—that we know.  General Conference actually ended on Friday, May 2, as scheduled, beating the midnight clock.  That is good.  What is not so good is that in the rush to the end numbers of petitions were passed or rejected with little or no debate.  Numbers of resolutions, for example, that deal with complex social issues on which the church desires to take a stand, and which should have received careful debate, were dealt with in a very few minutes because of the late hour the last night.  The result will be a bulkier and even more confusing Book of Resolutions.  As recently as 1980, the Book of Resolutions consisted of 85 resolutions in 224 pages.  In 2004, it held 368 resolutions on 970 pages.  There will be plenty more in the 2008 book.   

One resolution not passed was the resolution to withdraw from the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.  Though the vote was much closer (386-418) than at other General Conferences, the petition failed.  One significant abortion-related petition added the phrase to the Social Principles section on abortion:  “respects the sacredness…of the unborn child.”  The significance is that the unborn child is called an unborn child and not a fetus. 

Evangelicals and others are very much concerned about an amendment to the Constitution Article IV which, while innocuous sounding, is really about homosexuality and the push to approve homosexuality by judicial means.  The article as it now stands reads: “All persons without regard to race, color, national origin, status, or economic condition, shall be eligible to attend its worship services…and become professing members…”  The new language drops the words without regard to race, color, national origin, status, or economic condition so that the sentence reads: “All persons shall be eligible…to become professing members..”  Since “all persons” means all persons this means no restrictions can be placed on membership for any reasons; the practice of homosexuality being just one example.  One does not need to repent, or accept Christ, or believe the doctrines, or be committed to the church as long as the person is willing to receive the vows understood as he or she chooses to understand them.   

An activist Judicial Council could well interpret the Constitutional article to overturn prohibitions on the ordination and appointment of practicing homosexual. 

 Since constitutional amendments need to be ratified by two-thirds of the annual conferences, this matter will be up for a great deal of discussion in the coming weeks.

The petition (requiring two-thirds vote) was carried by just three votes.  Because of the press of time, debate time was limited.  Unfortunately, many African delegates had to leave the conference early and were not present for the vote.

The conference adopted a budget of 643 million dollars over the four-year period.  This will amount to a 1.2% increase per year.  In the budget was a $600,000 line item to fund the committee that will examine the regional conferences proposal.

What is the overall assessment of the General Conference?  It is still too early to say.  However, future articles will examine some of the legislation in more depth. 

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