General Conference delayed again till 2022
General Conference, the United Methodist Church’s legislative body and authority, is delayed again for a year due to the COVID-19 pandemic. The new date is 29 August to 6 September 2022. The Commission of General Conference oversees this task. After much research, this commission concluded that long-distance electronic meeting and voting was not feasible.
What is General Conference?
One issue was timing. For an example, the Philippines has a 14-hour difference from Chicago [if it is noon Tuesday in Chicago, the time in the Philippines is 2:00 AM Wednesday]. Another is the travel restrictions between countries, as well as the limited global vaccinations.
In the meantime, the Commission of General Conference has called a special General Conference session, with the same delegates, to be held virtually on 8 May 2021 to deal with urgent business only. That means most likely many of the non-United States delegates will be disenfranchised at this special session which will have a very narrow agenda. The delegates at this special General Conference cannot change the Commission of General Conference’s agenda.
It has been made clear that at this upcoming May special session will not address the schism that the Traditionist want to have as soon as possible.