Whither Regionalization?
Whither Regionalization? –
By Thomas Lambrecht
At the 2024 General Conference, all the components of regionalization were adopted by nearly three-fourths votes or greater. Those enactments do not take effect immediately, however. What happens next?
The next step in the process is for the General Conference secretary to prepare the constitutional amendments for ratification votes in every annual conference. In order for regionalization to take effect, a series of constitutional amendments needs to be ratified by a two-thirds vote of all the annual conference members in aggregate. The legislation required that the amendments be prepared for ratification within 30 days of the adjournment of the General Conference. But the first ratification votes are unlikely to take place until this fall, with some annual conferences outside the U.S. being the first to vote.
Most U.S. annual conferences will vote on ratification in 2025. The Council of Bishops is responsible for collecting the results from each annual conference, tabulating them, and then announcing whether the amendments were ratified or not. (It is ironic in this era of doubts about election integrity and pushes for greater transparency that some or even most annual conferences decline to announce the results of their individual annual conference vote. One must trust that the votes are being fairly tabulated and accurately transmitted to the Council of Bishops, but there is no public transparency of the results.)
The earliest the ratification results could be announced is probably at the Council of Bishops meeting in the fall of 2025. It is more likely it will be announced at their spring, 2026, meeting, just before the special General Conference is supposed to meet. It all depends upon when bishops decide to hold the ratification vote in their annual conferences. In the last cycle, some non-U.S. bishops postponed ratification for a year beyond when they could have voted, which delays the ability of the Council of Bishops to tabulate the full results and announce the outcome.
A Regional Reality
It is likely that, if the amendments are ratified, they would go into effect at the 2026 General Conference. However, there would not have been time to plan that conference in light of the regional reality. Practically speaking, then, the first General Conference to be significantly affected would be the 2028 General Conference.
At that conference, there would probably be a shorter meeting with fewer days devoted only to issues of global relevance (in the mind of the organizers). The U.S. Regional Conference would then meet following the General Conference to act on matters relevant to the U.S. and adapt any provisions of the Discipline to fit the U.S. “context.” The outcome would be a U.S. Book of Discipline that contains the general Disciplinebinding the whole denomination as determined by the General Conference, plus all the provisions adopted by the U.S. Regional Conference that would govern the church in the U.S.
The Central Conferences outside the U.S. will have a bigger task in 2028. They would share the same general Disciplineadopted by the General Conference, but they would also have the task of coming up with their own rules and policies related to all the parts of the Discipline that are adaptable to regional context. Since they have not had to do this before, it will be an intimidating task. Since the Central Conference meeting is where they also elect bishops, they will need to add days to their meetings at U.S. expense (for Africa and the Philippines) in order to have time to accomplish all they need to do. The U.S. will also need to pay for the printing of all these Central Conference Books of Discipline, so that church leaders have copies to work from.
For most matters, the newly adapted Disciplines for each region will go into effect on January 1, 2029.
Regionalization Lite
What if the ratification of amendments fails? Does that mean regionalization is dead? Not entirely.
First, the 2026 General Conference could try to pass the regionalization amendments again, for ratification in 2027. This would be especially likely if African votes sink regionalization in 2024-2025 but then significant portions of Africa disaffiliate from United Methodism. With those opposition votes gone, regionalization would stand a much better chance at passing on a second attempt. It would be similar to this year’s General Conference where, in the absence of a significant number of traditionalist delegates, the progressive agenda sailed through with supermajority margins. (Of course, it is also possible that some parts of Africa will disaffiliate before even taking a ratification vote. That would make it more likely that ratification would pass on the first attempt.)
Second, the last regionalization petition passed by the plenary session in Charlotte set up a Standing Committee on U.S. Matters to deal with U.S. concerns. This is parallel to the Standing Committee on Central Conference Matters that deals with issues relevant to areas outside the U.S. However, the Central Conference Committee only has about 35 members, while the U.S. Standing Committee would have all 500-odd U.S. delegates.
The U.S. Standing Committee would meet prior to the 2026 General Conference and also future General Conferences, if ratification fails. They would weigh in on any petitions or resolutions that uniquely affect the U.S. Since U.S. delegates are likely to still have a built-in majority at the General Conference, decisions made by the U.S. Standing Committee will likely be rubber stamped by the General Conference plenary. Judging by recent experience with the Central Conference Standing Committee, the U.S. Committee is likely to be more effective at killing legislation that it does not like, rather than promoting positive legislation for the General Conference to adopt. However, it is a new situation, and it will be interesting to see how these structures are used and evolved.
So, if ratification fails, the U.S. Standing Committee would still meet to care for U.S. interests. They would not be able to adapt the Discipline, however. As was seen at the Charlotte General Conference, it is likely that U.S. delegates will continue to dominate the agenda and votes in the next few General Conferences, making adaptations unnecessary.
One way or another, then, regionalization will go forward. The interim structure of the U.S. Standing Committee provides “regionalization lite.” Once the constitutional amendments are ratified, on the first or second attempt, the U.S. Standing Committee goes away, and full-blown regionalization and adaptation takes its place. It will be instructive to follow the evolution of this new form of “connectionalism” in the years ahead to measure its impact on the church’s ability to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
Thomas Lambrecht is a United Methodist clergyperson and the vice president of Good News. Photo: Delegates from the 2024 General Conference of the United Methodist Church in Charlotte, N.C. Photo by Steve Beard.