UMCSC delegation chair issues statement after delegation service…

Charlotte skyline image courtesy of charlottesgotalot.com.

The denomination’s top court has ruled that new delegate elections are not needed for General Conference 2024 and that delegates will remain the same as those elected to the 2020 General Conference.

The 2020 conference, which had been slated for May 5-15, 2020, in Minneapolis, Minnesota, was delayed multiple times because of the COVID-19 pandemic and ultimately postponed to April 23 to May 3, 2024, at the Charlotte Convention Center in Charlotte, North Carolina.

In Decision 1451 by The United Methodist Church’s Judicial Council, released Dec. 12, the court ruled, “The delegates duly elected to the 2020 General Conference for the 2020-2024 Quadrennium stand as submitted and certified by the annual conference secretaries.”

The church court also said these delegates can vote at the jurisdictional and central conferences that follow the next General Conference. Jurisdictional conferences in the U.S. and central conferences in Africa, Europe and the Philippines elect the denomination’s bishops.

A full story on this, “Church Court: No New Elections Needed for GC2024,” by Heather Hahn, can be found at https://www.umnews.org/en/news/church-court-no-new-elections-needed-for-gc2024

Jackie Jenkins, South Carolina’s delegation chair, responded to the news, noting that this delegation’s work will continue after a time of prayer and preparation.

“We serve a God of second chances,” Jenkins said. “When I read the ruling from the Judicial Council, the Holy Spirit reminded me that our work is not yet finished.”

Jenkins added that the delegation will first “focus our time on prayer and preparation for the work God has for us. We will refresh our knowledge of pending legislation and be confident through the Holy Spirit in discerning God’s direction and purpose in all we do. We are guided by God’s grace, directed to love one another and live in our beloved community.”

Jenkins noted there is much to look forward to this coming year, including much reconnection.

“Our working calendar will be developed and shared as soon as possible. Let us be anchored by Scripture in Hebrews 12:1-2: ‘Therefore, since so great a cloud of witnesses surrounds us, let us also lay aside every weight, and the sin which clings so closely, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us, looking to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross, despising the shame, and is seated at the right hand of the throne of God.”