Administrative Committees

These five administrative committees are made up of General Conference delegates nominated by their delegation, recommended by the General Conference Commission, and elected by the Connectional Council. The members elected by the Connectional Council are based on the following principles:

• People who are well qualified to do the work
• Representation from as many annual conferences as possible from the global church
• Each committee being half clergy and half lay
• Striving for gender balance

The Book of Doctrines and Discipline requires that members of the administrative committees shall have also been delegates to the preceding General Conference in Costa Rica. This requirement prevented most of the European, Filipino, or Latin American annual conferences from nominating anyone for these committees because their current delegates were not delegates in 2024. Therefore, the committees are roughly half-African and half-U.S. in voting membership. (Legislation has been submitted to eliminate this requirement for future General Conferences.)

Due to this requirement, conferences that were not part of the Global Methodist Church in 2024 would also be excluded. The Connectional Council voted to add two non-voting members to each committee except the Agenda Committee to provide representation from those conferences joining since 2024.

The Connectional Council also voted to add a non-voting advisory team to assist the Nominations Committee in their work. The advisory team will consist of two GMC staff persons, two bishops, and two conference superintendents. The goal is to have more people in the room who know the nominees and can give guidance in forming the slate of recommended general church commission members.

We received nominations from 18 of the 30 annual conferences present in Costa Rica. Some of the 12 who did not submit nominations were precluded by the above requirement. Others chose not to submit nominations. Of the 18 conferences that submitted nominations, 17 have members elected to a committee.

We also received nominations from 9 of the 17 annual conferences not in Costa Rica. Eight of them have a non-voting member on one of the committees.

In addition, 40 percent of the voting members are women.

The Reference and Nominations Committees will begin working immediately, as most of their responsibilities are carried out well before the General Conference meets. The Agenda, Credentials, and Journal Committees will begin meeting in May, with the Journal Committee’s responsibilities continuing for several months after the General Conference adjourns in September.

Please keep these committee members in prayer as they seek to facilitate the work of the General Conference.