gmc---2026

Set Apart in the Beauty of Holiness

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 18:31:27 GMT

Clergy from across the connection gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg in their robes and red stoles, and the delegates who had spent the week bent to the sacred work of legislation and discernment turned to a moment of consecration for the Church's new bishops.

As directed by the “Book of Doctrines and Discipline,” eight bishops were chosen to lead the connection through the 2026–2032 sexennial. Of the eight elected, five will be consecrated for the episcopacy, as the remaining have served previously in the role. Each will be set apart in the historic manner, taking up a ministry described not as an office to be held but as a sacred trust — to shepherd the Church, guard the faith, teach sound doctrine, equip the saints, and lead the people of God in the mission to make disciples of Jesus Christ and spread scriptural holiness across the globe.

The five reflect the breadth of a truly global Church: Luther Oconer, Jonathan Lee, Lyndol Loyd, Jerry Kulah, and Paul Lawler. Their episcopal areas gather annual conferences from across continents, and as general superintendents they serve across nations, languages, and cultures. All of the bishops’ new terms of service begin November 1, 2026.

The service was also a moment of gratitude. Before the new bishops were consecrated, the conference gave thanks for those who have provided episcopal leadership through the Church's formative years and who are not continuing in the role, honoring their faithful and selfless service to a young denomination.

It was one of those leaders, Bishop Jeff Greenway, who brought the Word — and with it, a charge to those about to be set apart.

Today, and all the rest of your days,” he said, “are not days for pride or self aggrandizement, but rather days to humbly die to yourself, so that the life of Christ may continue to be formed in you.You are still the same person you were the day before you were elected. May God give you the grace to humbly live into your new role and responsibility.

Over the gathering hung the words of the Wesley Covenant Prayer, offered as the posture of every leader being set apart: “Put me to what You will, rank me with whom You will... I freely and heartily yield all things to Your pleasure and disposal.” It is the heart of episcopal leadership — not Where do I want to serve? but Where is Christ calling me to go?

The Church is invited to pray for these bishops, their families, and the people and places they have been called to serve — that they might lead with humility, teach with faithfulness, and shepherd with love. In this, the beauty of holiness is not merely a theme but a calling, taken up anew.

A Solid Foundation: General Conference Adopts the Articles of Faith

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 17:40:50 GMT

“Amazing grace, how sweet the sound,” the delegates sang beneath the hall of the Sandton Convention Centre, and only when the last verse faded did Bishop Jeff Greenway call the body to order. What followed would prove to be among the most consequential mornings not only of this General Conference, but of the Global Methodist Church's young life–the adoption of the Articles of Faith.

Its centerpiece was a labor more than two decades in the making. Introducing Petition 1441, the Rev. Dr. Matt O'Reilly reminded the conference that when Methodism's predecessor bodies merged in 1968, they set the Articles of Religion and the Confession of Faith side by side without reconciling them — “a crack,” as he described it, in the church's doctrinal foundation.

The petition before the delegates completed the work left undone: a single successor document, the Articles of Faith. O'Reilly was careful to name that it belonged to no one author, inviting a writing team, review teams, an online survey, a commission, and a legislative committee to stand in turn. “This is why the Articles of Faith belong to the Church.”

A single amendment, offered by the Bishop-elect Paul Lawler, strengthened the article on Holy Scripture, declaring it “true in all it affirms, entirely trustworthy, and the only infallible rule of faith and practice.” Recalling the painful past, Lawler warned that “sound and robust doctrine alone will not renew the Church — but doctrine on fire will.” When the vote met a clear required three-quarters threshold, the hall rose and broke, spontaneously, into the Doxology. Upon passage, O’Reilly notes the Articles, "articulate the faith once for all delivered to the saints," place the church alongside faithful Protestant believers, and declare "the distinctive contributions of our Wesleyan Methodist heritage."

The body also attended to some of the ordinary business of a global church. It elected the Rev. Lamar Oliver as General Conference Secretary, refined the constitution and connectional finances, and adopted a Plan of Organization and Covenant to guide the Church until the next General Conference — to be held somewhere in the world in 2032. Stretching deadlines across six years rather than two, the plan also gently recommended that future delegates hold passports and be able to meet online, a quiet acknowledgment of how far this connection now reaches.

By the lunch recess, the delegates had done in a single morning what most churches never do in a generation: declared, in one voice and by three-quarters majority, what they believe and why it matters. They turned then toward the afternoon's final legislative actions and consecration of bishops — the beauty of holiness moving, as it had all week, from the page into worship, and from Johannesburg outward to all the peoples of the world.

"Here I Am, Send Me": A Final Morning of Worship in Johannesburg

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 17:34:55 GMT

Final morning worship at the 2026 General Conference of the Global Methodist Church began with praise carrying the accent of the whole Church. "There is no one like Jesus," the room sang, one language folding into another until the refrain rose in the cadence of African worship and the delegates were on their feet.

It was a fitting picture of the theme framing these days together, the beauty of holiness. After a recap video carried the delegates back through the week's worship and deliberation, the service settled into Scripture and prayer — and here, too, the global character of the Church was unmistakable.

A delegate read the Great Commission from Matthew, the risen Christ sending His disciples to “make disciples of all nations,” then prayed twice, once in English and once in Xhosa, asking that those gathered be made ambassadors of peace. Members rose again for a song of praise in Luganda, brought from Uganda, confessing a caring Lord who sustains his people. The second lesson, Colossians 3, was read first in the King James Version and then in French — the same summons, in two tongues, to set the mind on things above and put off the old self for the new.

The preacher for the hour was Simon Mafunda, director of GMC Africa, who has helped plan and organize the Global Methodist Church's annual conferences across the continent. A layperson in the Zimbabwe Annual Conference and a General Conference delegate multiple times over, Mafunda has served as a lay leader for fourteen years and will soon begin studies at Asbury Theological Seminary as he prepares for ordination as a deacon. He and his wife, Hannah, have been married thirty-five years and share a passion for ministry among marginalized children.

Mafunda took as his theme a phrase that sounds, at first, like a contradiction: “We die to live.” To truly live, he said, a person must first die — not to self-improvement, but to self-surrender. He anchored the claim in Paul's confession, “I have been crucified with Christ, and I no longer live, but Christ lives in me,” and drew out its cost with plain honesty. What dies is pride, selfish ambition, and the desire to have one's own way. “This is not merely changing our behavior,” he told the body. “It is a change of ownership. Before Christ, I belong to myself. After Christ, I belong to him.”

Yet Christ does not leave his people empty, he was quick to add; the cross is always followed by resurrection, and the old self is exchanged for a new heart and a new purpose.

That new life was never meant to be kept safe on a shelf. “Jesus did not save us merely to keep us safe,” Mafunda said. “He saved us to send us.” To a conference preparing to scatter back across the world, he pressed the point home: “The Christian life is not a waiting room for heaven. It is a mission field.”

As the message closed, Mafunda turned Isaiah's vision into an invitation. God is still asking “Whom shall I send?” he said, into unfamiliar languages, into persecuted and war-torn places, into neighborhoods and workplaces where indifference reigns. This call is not for the qualified but for the surrendered. Bishop Jeff Greenway offered the closing prayer, inviting all present to give as much of themselves as they knew to as much of Jesus as they could understand, trusting God to make up the difference.

Travel Notifications - Sunday Departures

Sat, 05 Sep 2026 06:56:45 GMT

✈️ *SUNDAY TRAVEL & AIRPORT TRANSPORTATION*

�� Shuttles to Gautrain: For those departing tomorrow, Sunday, September 6th the GMC will provide a *complimentary shuttle from the conference hotels to the Gautrain station from 6:00 AM–5:00 PM (06:00–17:00).* The shuttle will stop at each hotel throughout the day.

Hotel shuttles may also be available, but they could be very busy and crowded. *Please allow yourself plenty of time to get to the airport.*

�� *Gautrain:* The train ride to the airport takes approximately *20 minutes. Please plan to arrive at the airport **2–3 hours before your scheduled departure.* The Gautrain stops operating at *8:00 PM (20:00).*

�� *Gautrain Cards:* The Gautrain card you received at the beginning of General Conference was loaded with a *round-trip fare*, so please use that same card for your return journey.

*Uniglobe travelers:* If you need a Gautrain card, please see *Stacy Taylor at the Hospitality Table* today.

We will continue sharing travel information and reminders throughout the day. Thank you for planning ahead, and safe travels as you begin your journeys home! ��✈️

A Heart of Flesh: Morning Worship on Day Six

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 23:22:54 GMT

sixth morning of the General Conference began with Charles Wesley's “And Can It Be” rising in a hall filled with delegates from across the globe, carried by a refrain naming the geography of the gathering — from Africa to Asia to the Americas — grace extending to each one, glory returning to Christ the King. The hymn that has stirred Methodist hearts for nearly three centuries was, that morning, unmistakably the song of a global Church.

From praise, the assembly moved to prayer. A clergy member led the room in intercession in Korean and English, inviting delegates into Tongsung Kido — the Korean practice of praying aloud together — each person calling on the name of the Lord in his or her own native tongue. The prayer echoed Scripture at every turn — the wonder of Psalm 8, the confession of Isaiah's unclean lips, the vision of Revelation's multitude from every nation, tribe, and tongue before the Lamb. Its most quietly striking line was also its most Wesleyan: the Global Methodist Church, the one praying confessed, "is not ours, it's Yours."

The Word was read as it was prayed — in Gujarati, English, and other tongues — around two texts that would anchor the morning: the Great Commandment of Matthew 22, to love God fully and one's neighbor as oneself, and the promise of Ezekiel 36, in which the Lord vows to remove a heart of stone and give a heart of flesh.

Rev. Mark Sorensen, senior pastor of The Woodlands Methodist Church, welcomed by Bishop Scott Jones who had once appointed him, preached on holy love and the transformed heart. He confessed a conviction from the singing itself — how easily believers sing the words on the screen while ignoring their own hearts — and pressed the assembly not to flinch where God begins to press. His counsel became a refrain: stay on the physician's table.

Sorensen grounded the theme in the soil beneath them. On December 3, 1967, at Groote Schuur Hospital in Cape Town, Dr. Christiaan Barnard performed the world's first human heart transplant. Yet centuries before any surgeon dared it, he reminded them, God had promised through Ezekiel to do what no surgeon could — replace a hardened heart entirely. What the Lord offers is not repair but renewal: “God's work in us that becomes God's love through us,” a phrase Sorensen returned to repeatedly as the Wesleyan conviction that Christian perfection is nothing less than perfect, holy love.

He let it land through testimony — a woman who, after years of a hardened heart toward a family member, found grace at work, a relationship long closed beginning to open. “Grace doing heart surgery,” he called it. He closed with Michelangelo's Pietà , damaged by a vandal's hammer and painstakingly restored: God does not discard the marred masterpiece but restores it to what the Artist intended, until his love becomes visible through his people. Nearly sixty years ago, South Africa showed the world that a human heart could be replaced; may the Church leave South Africa, he prayed, showing what happens when a heart is transformed by holy love.

If the morning had one question, it was the one the sermon pressed home: what does the Lord do with a hardened heart? That was Sorensen's focus from first word to last — not flawless performance but perfect, holy love, the miracle Ezekiel promised and Barnard could only imitate. And the answer had already been rehearsed in the room.

The conference had come not to polish its own performance but to be met by grace and to let it do the heart surgery only God can perform — trading stone for flesh, one delegate at a time. That was the morning's prayer as much as its preaching: that a Church drawn from every tribe and tongue would leave South Africa with softened hearts, its love made visible, and scriptural holiness carried across the globe.

When the Church Chooses Its Stewards: Friday's Commission and Council Elections

Fri, 04 Sep 2026 23:18:14 GMT

Some of a General Conference's most consequential work makes the least noise. After the anticipation of Wednesday's episcopal ballots and the celebrations that followed, Friday's legislative sessions at the Sandton Convention Centre turned to a quieter but no less important task — electing the clergy and laity who will carry the ongoing work of the Global Methodist Church through its councils, commissions, and committees.

These are the bodies named in the “Book of Doctrines and Discipline” that steward the life of the Church between general conferences: a majority of church members, clergy and laity together, entrusted with doctrine and discipleship, finance and mission, ecumenical friendship and the good order of the connection.

What follows is a brief explanation of each body, with the unofficial results of Friday's elections placed beneath — a picture of a Church naming its stewards for the 2026–2032 sexennial. With the official daily journal still to come tomorrow, these results are shared as a first, unofficial account — a way to bring the news to the Church now rather than hold it back.

The Connectional Council serves as the Global Methodist Church's chief missional and administrative body between sessions of the General Conference. Functioning as the denomination's leadership team, it helps guide the Church's direction, implement its vision, and coordinate ministry efforts at the general church level. Delegates elected four clergy and four lay members, with the Council itself choosing its officers and the Connectional Council adding a further four members for balance and expertise.

Clergy: Luciano Pereira da Silva (Panama), Gabriella Kopas (Central Europe), Jessica LaGrone (Trinity), and Henriette Okele (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Laity: Gene Floore (Alabama Emerald Coast), Juliet Jere (Malawi), Sheela Shankar (India), and Tammy Stott (North Carolina)

The Connectional Council on Appeals serves as the highest judicial body within the Global Methodist Church. Its purpose is to ensure that the actions, legislation, and governance of the Church remain consistent with the” Book of Doctrines and Discipline,” the foundational guide for doctrine, polity, and practice in the denomination. Delegates elected four clergy and three lay members, along with an equal number of alternates.

Clergy: Steven Bell (Trinity), Daniel Fulton (Mid-South), and Richard Jones (West Plains)
Clergy alternates: Ebenezer Belleh (Grain Coast), Elliot Chikwenjere (Zimbabwe), Paul Idi (Northeast Nigeria), and Sungwon Nam (Korean-American)

Laity: Ron Enns (West Plains), Beatrice Iliya (Northern Nigeria), and Vicky Johnson (Trinity)
Lay alternates: James Bannister (South Carolina), Martina Lukic (Central Europe), and Gideon Salatan (Covenant Philippines)

The Conferences Commission exists to support the strategic growth and organization of the Global Methodist Church around the world. It makes recommendations to the Assembly of Bishops, the Connectional Council, and the General Conference regarding the creation, restructuring, or modification of annual conferences — the regional bodies through which the Church carries out its work. Delegates elected six clergy and six laity, with no additional members to be added.

Clergy: Clark Atkins, Jr. (Trinity), Jonathan Lee (Upper Midwest), Michael Morrissey, Jr. (Mid-South), John Howard (North Carolina), Wilton Odongo (Kenya), and Alban Amour Gonda Yagozo (Central African Republic)

Laity: Kirsten Mains (Great Lakes), James Massaquoi (Grain Coast), Brayan George Mwakalinga (Tanzania), Pauline Ntombura (Afrika Makarishi), Lori Smith (Mississippi-West Tennessee), and Mickey Wheeler (Mid-Texas)

The Discipleship, Doctrine and Just Ministry Commission guides how the Global Methodist Church fosters discipleship and ongoing spiritual growth across every level of the Church, developing programs, classes, bands, and other small-group resources that support formation in Christ. It was this commission, chaired by Dr. David Watson, whose work produced the proposed combined Articles of Faith that is being taken up this week. Delegates elected ten members — five clergy and five laity — with the Connectional Council able to add up to five more.

Clergy: Kenneth Collins (Mid-South), Martin Longanga (Democratic Republic of Congo), Suzanne Nicholson (Mid-South), Dennis Obadiah (Southern Nigeria), and Virgilio Olonan (Covenant Philippines)

Laity: Pau Ayi-Bonte (Eastern Russia-Central Asia), Elena Melnikova (Central Russia), Krista Pettit (Northeast), Kathy Rohrs (Allegheny West), and Nolizwi Stofela (South Africa)

The Ecumenical Relationships Commission strengthens the Church's ties with the broader body of Christ, bringing recommendations to the Assembly of Bishops and the Connectional Council concerning the denomination's participation in councils and networks of Christian bodies, as well as covenants or potential unions with other churches — the very work embodied this week in the covenant signed with the Korean Methodist Church. A bishop chairs the commission; delegates elected four clergy and four laity.

Clergy: Samson Muzengeza (Zimbabwe), Debo Onabanjo (Allegheny West), Sakiusa Vakadewatabua, Jr. (Heartland), and Vatroslav Zupancic (Central Europe)

Laity: Bridget Douglas (Great Lakes), Kankolongo Johnson (Democratic Republic of Congo), Debbie Smalley (Alabama Emerald Coast), and Elena Sokolova (Northwest Russia-Belarus)

The Finance, Administration, Pensions, and Benefits Commission exists to support faithful stewardship, integrity, and transparency at every level of the connection. Appointed by the General Conference and reporting to the Connectional Council, it provides financial oversight, legal support, and guidance in matters of retirement, benefits, and recordkeeping. Delegates elected ten members, with the Connectional Council able to add up to five more.

Clergy: Harrison Bell (Alabama Emerald Coast), Vivian Kinnear (Trinity), James Noble (Mid-Texas), and Matthew Seel (Mid-South)

Laity: Sherry Austin (Great Lakes), Olandor Boyce (Grain Coast), Lyndsey Clark (North Carolina), Sam Gregory (West Plains), Joy Perry (Allegheny West), and Luvo Thwethwa (South Africa)

The General Conference Commission is responsible for planning and coordinating every aspect of the Church's General Conferences. It determines the number of legislative committees, oversees the assignment of materials to delegates, and recommends updates to the Plan of Organization and Covenant for Our Life Together. Delegates elected sixteen members, at least half of them laity, with the Connectional Council able to add up to eight more.

Clergy: Mbingeleli Diko (South Africa), Mike Grant (Allegheny West), Joy Griffin (North Georgia), Ben Huebner (Mid-Texas), Charles Puno (Mega Manila), and Nicolas Munongo Sukisa (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Laity: Elizabeth Fink (Trinity), Dana Gilliam (North Alabama), Ephraim Ibrahim Jen (Southern Nigeria), Inna Kim (Central Russia), Bridget Kirk (Heartland), Muriel Nelson (Grain Coast), Walter Oduke (Kenya), Giftson Rajan (India), Stacy Taylor (Northeast), and Mandy White (West Plains)

The Global Episcopacy Committee oversees the election of bishops, provides human-resources and administrative support for their ministry, and processes concerns in keeping with the Church's Judicial Practice and Procedures — the body that guided this week's historic episcopal elections. Its nominees were chosen by the Connectional Council, as prescribed by the “Book of Doctrines and Discipline,” and delegates elected six clergy and six laity, each by a sixty-percent vote.

Clergy: Jason Burnham (Trinity), Robin Parr (North Georgia), Chris Ritter (Great Lakes), Joanne Turmalip Valenzuela (Mega Manila), Aaron Opa Yankee (Grain Coast), and Kira Yufereva (Central Russia)

Laity: Don Bourland (Mississippi-West Tennessee), Patrick Chibhagidhi (Zimbabwe), Brad Folsom (South Georgia), Tyson Heins (Heartland), Sarah Maher (Allegheny West), and Ievgenii Semashko (Bulgaria)

The Kingdom Advancement Commission — officially the Evangelism, Church Multiplication, Missional Mobilization, and Disaster Response Commission — equips and supports local churches, annual conferences, and the general church in fulfilling the denomination's mission, working through three focused subcommittees. Delegates elected eleven members — six laity and five clergy — with the Connectional Council able to add up to six more.

Clergy: Failuma Afeaki (Western States), Wes Griffin (North Georgia), Patrick Magaqa (South Africa), Laura Saffell (Allegheny West), and Martin Kasongo Wakubatwa (Democratic Republic of Congo)

Laity: Diana Briselli (Northeast), Bill Brown (Heartland), Robby Kalitongi (Zambia), Elena Lyovushkina (Southern Russia), Mariela Mihaylova-Siderova (Bulgaria), and Angelo Perez (Covenant Philippines)

The Ministry and Higher Education Commission is responsible for implementing standards across all forms of ordained and lay ministry within the Church, including certifying the educational programs that train lay ministers, deacons, and elders. Delegates elected ten members — five clergy and five laity — with the Connectional Council able to add up to five more.

Clergy: Daniel Gildner (Allegheny West), Kora Mujinga (Democratic Republic of Congo), Thadius Sales (Northeast), Leslie Tomlinson (Mid-Texas), and Brian Ebel (Mid-South)

Laity: Diana Cabauatan (Covenant Philippines), Jane Finley (North Georgia), Leesa Judd (South Carolina), Kelvin Kofi (Eastern Russia-Central Asia), and Catherine Sullivan (Trinity)

"Well Done, Good and Faithful Servants": General Conference Honors Bishops Leaving Active Service

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 20:16:40 GMT

As the hour grew late in Johannesburg, the Global Methodist Church gathered in the ballroom of the Sandton Convention Centre, rose, and sang “Great Is Thy Faithfulness” together. Only then, with the room settled into gratitude, did the General Conference turn to the evening's purpose — to honor the bishops who have carried the Church through its founding years and now enter the ranks of its Bishops Emeriti.

The tribute opened with a reflection on what the office has asked of these servants. “The word bishop ,” Chris Ritter, Chair of the Global Episcopacy Committee, reminded, “comes from the New Testament episkopos — an overseer entrusted with watching over the life of the Church.”

But these bishops did not inherit a settled connection; they helped shepherd a new thing into being. Their service carried them across nations, continents, and time zones, often to places difficult to reach and at times where travel involved real physical risk — far from home and at considerable personal cost, borne by some even amid significant health challenges. That sacrifice, Ritter was careful to say, was not the bishops' alone; gratitude was offered to their spouses, who shared in this ministry in ways both visible and unseen.

They were honored, too, for the quieter labor of forming a denomination — tending wounds, building relationships, reconciling differences, and helping a young connection find a faithful way forward. To become a Bishop Emeritus, the conference noted, is not merely to receive a title for past service, but to enter a new relationship with the Church as a treasured source of wisdom and counsel.

If the formal tribute spoke for the Church, Mike Schafer spoke as a witness. The Church's Connectional Operations Officer confessed, with some humor, that the Book of Doctrines and Discipline gave him no role among the bishops — “my job description has nothing to do with these people” — yet they had invited him into their world and let him watch them work.

Turning to the six completing their active service — Bishops John Pena Auta, Kimba Evariste, Jeffrey Greenway, Leah Gregory, Scott Jones and Kenneth Levingston — Schafer set aside his notes: “I'm going to miss you being in the room. I'm going to miss your voices of wisdom, your love for Jesus, and the way you model leadership.”

Jones, a founding bishop, represented those retiring. An ordained Methodist preacher for forty-eight years, he offered a striking testimony: “The last four years have been the best years of my ministry.” He named three marks of the Assembly's life together — trust, alignment, and a spirituality that helped even seasoned leaders grow deeper and pray better than ever before. But the greatest blessing, he insisted, had been the people themselves.

The evening's central symbol carried its own story. When the Assembly first met after its 2024 election in Costa Rica, it set aside the crozier — the shepherd's staff that had become, for many, a symbol of a "royal" episcopacy. The conference returned it in a renewed light: not an emblem of power, but a sign of servant leadership. Jason Burnham, Conference Superintendent for Trinity Annual Conference and Vice Chair of the Global Episcopacy Committee, detailed the symbolism of the crozier. Its straight shaft recalls how the bishops stood firm and taught the faith; its pointed base, how they encouraged a weary people; its crook, how they drew the flock back when it strayed. A crozier would be gifted to each of them as they entered into this new season.

In closing, Bishop-elect Paul Lawler invited delegations to gather around the outgoing bishops and lay hands on them in prayer. The room sang “The Blessing” over its bishops, and the benediction returned, as the evening had, to Scripture: give honor to whom honor is due. It was a fitting close to a night devoted to the beauty of holiness — a Church still in its founding years pausing to bless the shepherds who helped bring it into being.

Watch the Celebration of Bishops service.

A Whole Church at the Lord's Feet: Choosing the One Thing in Day Five Worship

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:36:54 GMT

It was a day built for plenary business. Ahead of the Conference lay a full afternoon of legislation and, that evening, celebration of outgoing bishops and a rehearsal for the consecration of new bishops. But on Thursday morning, the people were asked to consider a single, quieter thing — the one thing, as Jesus once told a distracted Martha, that would not be taken away.

Worship gathered the room first. Song rose in the ballroom until the words filled the space — “there is no one like our God” — and the languages of the global Church rose with it, prayers lifted in Spanish and in English by a people drawn from Chile, Guatemala, Brazil, the Dominican Republic, Panama and beyond. The prayer was not for ease but for fire: that the Holy Spirit would fall on the whole Global Methodist Church and send her out to speak of Christ to those who do not yet know him.

Then the room grew still to hear the story of two sisters. Martha worked and worried over many details; Mary simply sat at the Lord's feet and listened. “There is only one thing worth being concerned about,” the reading recalled, “and Mary has discovered it.” To sit at the Lord's feet, attentive to his presence and his Word, is the better portion — and it would not be taken away from her.

What Mary discovered as one disciple, Paul longed for in a whole congregation. From Luke the Scriptures turned to his words to the Corinthians — a call to receive the Spirit who is from God, and to carry the very mind of Christ.

The preacher was the Rev. Luciano Pereira Da Silva, Conference Superintendent of Panama, whose ministry has knit the Global Methodist Church together across Latin America. He opened 1 Corinthians and set two churches side by side. One was the mature body God longs for — a people who, like Mary, had found the one thing and kept their eyes fixed there. The other was the church as it actually was in Corinth — gifted, Spirit-filled, and yet still infants in Christ, distracted like Martha by the wrong things: quarreling over which leader to follow, dressing the Gospel in the status-seeking habits of the surrounding culture.

The difference, Pereira insisted, was never about being filled with more knowledge. Maturity, instead, is the willingness to live by the cross — to be emptied of self for the sake of others. It is Mary's posture made corporate: a whole Church choosing the better portion together, sitting low before Christ rather than jockeying for its own importance.

“The truly mature are those capable of disappearing,” Pereira said, “so that others can grow.” One plants, another waters, but God gives the growth; leaders come and go, while the Church of Jesus Christ goes on. Drawing on John Wesley's The Scripture Way of Salvation , he reminded the conference that grace does more than forgive us — it keeps working in us to make us holy. The power the Church is promised, he warned, was never given to dominate or to display our gifts, but to lay our lives at the foot of Jesus and the cross each day.

As it had all week, the Conference shared Holy Communion by passing the elements hand to hand down each row, one believer serving the next — “the body of Christ, broken for you, because he loves you.” In the hush that followed, the room returned to the morning's one thing: “I'm not here for blessings; nothing else, nothing else will do — I just want you.”

Only then were the people sent — into the legislation, into the day's decisions, into the evening ahead — under a plain and steadying word: if we have Jesus, we have need of nothing else. The work would come. But Thursday began by naming what comes first.

A Covenant 141 Years in the Making: Global Methodists Sign Ecumenical Covenant with Korean Methodist Church

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:14:52 GMT

On the fifth day of the General Conference of the Global Methodist Church, delegates set aside the ordinary work of a legislative body to witness the signing of an ecumenical covenant with the Korean Methodist Church – a document the Conference had passed unanimously the day before, and a relationship that reaches back more than a century.

“It was truly an honor to have such a strong delegation with us from the Korean Methodist Church,” Bishop Carolyn Moore reflected. The delegation was itself part of the story.

Six bishops of the Korean Methodist Church came alongside their president bishop, Kim Jung-seok — a gathering the conference was told is without precedent. Never before have so many Korean Methodist bishops visited a sister denomination's ceneral conference together with the president bishop. Their presence made plain how seriously the Korean church regards this new relationship. They were joined by the general secretary of the Korean Methodist Mission Department and the executive pastor of Seoul's Kwanglim Methodist Church, one of the largest Methodist congregations in the world.

Bishop Jeff Greenway introduced the guests and the covenant, an assignment that carries a personal history. Years ago, while president of Asbury Theological Seminary, the late Bishop Kim Sundo – founder of Kwanglim – introduced Greenway to the bishop's son, Kim Jung-seok, and the two became friends. That son now pastors Kwanglim and leads the Korean Methodist Church. Last October, Greenway carried the possibility of a covenant to him, attending the Korean General Conference on behalf of the Assembly of Bishops, where the Korean church ratified the agreement's language.

The covenant does not create a bond so much as it names one. The first resident missionaries of the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Reverend Henry Gerhard Appenzeller and his wife, Ella Dodge Appenzeller, stepped ashore at Jemulpo — present-day Incheon — on April 5, 1885. It was Easter Sunday, 141 years ago. Appenzeller gave himself to education, evangelism, and Bible translation, founding the school that grew into Pai Chai Hakdang. That same year, Mary Fletcher Scranton arrived and began teaching Korean girls, establishing what became Ewha Womans University.

In the century and a half since, the Korean Methodist Church has flourished into one of the great centers of Methodism. Jung-seok described a church of nearly 6,700 congregations, some 10,000 pastors, and 1,400 missionaries sent across the world. Most Methodists in the Global Methodist Church's Korean American Conference can trace their heritage directly to it.

Speaking to the assembly, Jung-seok reached back to that first Easter arrival and forward to the church's calling now – a mission that transcends denomination, moving from personal to social holiness in the spirit of John Wesley. “It is my sincere hope," he said, "that our Methodist churches will remain partners eternally.”

The Korean signing stood alongside the Conference's covenant relationships with the Methodist churches of Costa Rica and Nigeria, whose representatives were welcomed as witnesses.

Moore set the partnership in that larger context. “Our relationships within the global church are important,” she said.

“They are how we engage in conversations about the advance of Christianity and how we care for and support the Body of Christ, especially in those places where the Church is persecuted and needs the encouragement of the larger Body. In this spirit, we have entered into this special relationship with the Korean Methodist Church. We recognize that all our covenant relationships are lived out in the local church, as our churches partner together to build relationships.”

Greenway and a group of Global Methodists will represent the GMC at the Korean Methodist General Conference later this year to sign the same covenant before their delegation.

“These acts of unity are one way we can participate in making the Bride of Christ ready for his return,” said Moore.

The assembly extended its hands toward the guests and prayed a blessing over the covenant now begun, asking that what was signed on earth be ratified in heaven. What began 141 years ago on an Easter morning at Incheon had, in Johannesburg, been carried one step further along the same road.

Seven Hundred Seven Days: COO Reports on Connectional Operations

Thu, 03 Sep 2026 19:11:33 GMT

Connectional Operations Officer Mike Schafer opened his report to the General Conference on Thursday afternoon with a number he insisted he needed artificial intelligence to reach: 707 days. That is how long it had been, he told delegates at the Sandton Convention Centre, since the Global Methodist Church closed its convening General Conference in San José, Costa Rica — 707 days he described as “craziness and chaos and excitement and watching what God is doing.”

The transformation over that span, as Schafer's figures show, was striking. The church left Costa Rica with roughly 4,700 congregations; as of Thursday morning, he reported, it numbered 7,250. Its annual conferences had grown from 36 to 55, with six emerging areas that may soon become annual conferences of their own.

The statistic he said he loved most: since Costa Rica, the number of annual conferences outside the United States has more than doubled. A Church that departed Central America as “a bunch of former United Methodists,” he said, had become the Global Methodist Church.

Schafer credited the leaders elected two years ago who, in his telling, “had no clue what they were getting into” – an Assembly of Bishops now leading with passion for the Church's mission, a Connectional Council divided evenly between clergy and laity whose behind-the-scenes work he said he could speak about for his entire allotted time, and seven commissions and the Global Episcopacy Committee whose labor he called “amazing” to watch. The Connectional Council on Appeals, he noted, is now up and running and issued its first ruling during the week of the Conference. He offered particular thanks to Keith Boyette, present in the hall, who had poured into him during his first month on the job.

On finances, Schafer said the Church that left Costa Rica in a good position now stands in “an amazing financial position,” and he credited the local churches and their generosity. He reminded the body that each local church is encouraged to give one percent to the global Church — funding the bishops, the commissions, the meetings of the Connectional Council, and the denominational staff.

That giving, he said, had produced not merely a surplus over the past two years, but a large one. The surplus paid for the General Conference itself, including fully covered travel for every delegate from outside the United States. In addition, distributions were made to every annual conference for the new ministerial training fund, which conferences could pass along to those preparing for ministry or share with partner conferences.

He also prepared delegates for a significant shift ahead. Until now, the Church has carried only a few full-time bishops, most serving part time on part-time salaries without benefits. Beginning in November, eight full-time bishops will receive full salaries and benefits — a change Schafer said would dramatically reshape next year's budget, and one he thanked the body for making possible with confidence.

Noting that his full written report was available to read in the pre-conference workbook , Schafer instead used his remaining time to honor the people he works alongside. Living out the church's value of a lean structure, he said, a staff of just 19 — 13 full-time and six part-time — serves 7,250 congregations worldwide, handling finances, communications, information technology, endorsement ministries for chaplains and counselors, administration, and benefits. He called those present to stand and be recognized as “warriors.”

Two colleagues drew special tribute. Tom Lambrecht, the General Conference Secretary and one of the pioneers of the movement, will retire at the close of this General Conference, remaining until the new “Book of Doctrines and Discipline” is published; Schafer called him “a jewel of a man” and announced a bronze sculpture of John Wesley would be sent after the conference. He also honored Rhonda Bourgeois, who has given the church some 50 hours a week of information technology work for years without pay – labor without which, he said, Costa Rica “would not have happened.” With the hiring of Jonathan Leung as the new director of IT, Schafer said, the hope is to “give Bourgeois her life back.”

He closed on the 707 days behind and the promise of what might come in the next 707 and beyond, returning to the words of Jesus in Matthew 19:26: “for mortals it is impossible, but for God all things are possible.”

“Who Is Your Because?”: A Charge to Holy Living

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:39:12 GMT

“Push your chairs back a little.” It was not the instruction delegates might have expected to open the fourth morning of the 2026 General Conference, but the Rev. David Sablan Jr. had opened his Bible to Psalm 150, and he intended the whole psalm — praise with the tambourine and dancing, praise with a clash of cymbals, everything that has breath giving praise to the Lord. What followed at the Sandton Convention Centre carried the unmistakable warmth of a Filipino revival meeting: laughter, an invitation to greet a neighbor, and a room of bishops and delegates on their feet, coaxed into offering God the best of their energy before the preaching had properly begun.

Sablan brought that exuberance from the Mega Manila Annual Conference, where he serves as Conference Evangelist and Chairman of the Board of Ministry. He was among the pastors who helped plant the conference, which has multiplied from a small band of congregations to more than fifty and now reaches Filipino believers scattered across the Middle East and Europe. An evangelist and revivalist who has spent decades calling people to Christ, he makes his home with his wife, Jomel, in the province of Cavite — a country, he noted with a grin, of “7,100 islands during low tide, and 7,000 during high tide.” He confessed to knowing the “proverb” that blessed are the pastors who keep their sermons short, “for they shall be invited again,” before adding the caveat that governs an evangelist’s clock: “when the Holy Spirit moves, the clock stops.”

His text was 1 Peter 1:15–16: “As he who called you is holy, be holy yourselves in all your conduct…’you shall be holy, for I am holy.’” Before drawing out what such a life looks like, Sablan named what he sees pressing against it. Secularism and liberalism, he warned, have seeped so far into the culture — and into the churches — that the world now shapes the Church at least as much as the Church shapes the world. The recovery he called for was not a strategy but a return to the authority of Scripture and the restoration of “biblical integrity.” For holiness, in his telling, is always mediated through and grounded in the Word of God. He even pressed the command into his own Tagalog, teaching the room to say it back to him: maging banal ka — be holy.

From there, the sermon unfolded in three movements — a life shaped by Scripture, sourced in the Spirit, and reflecting God’s own character. Holiness, Sablan insisted, is never manufactured. “He will generate what you cannot create,” he said of the Spirit, naming the fruit that no program can produce.

He was blunt about the counterfeit: churches with many activities and little adoration, much machinery and scant power. “God wants to be seen,” he pressed. “But the question is, do we want to see God?”

Holiness, he preached, is nothing less than “radiant beauty — the splendor of God reflected in his people.” He returned again and again to a single question, inviting delegates to ask it of themselves and their ministries: when others marvel at your transformation or your success, what is your answer? “Jesus is my because ,” he declared. “Who is your because ?”

That question turned, near the end, toward the very work the delegates had traveled to Johannesburg to do. Borrowing the image from “Holy, holy, holy” of the saints casting their crowns before the throne, Sablan named the milestones of a historic gathering — the petitions the conference would affirm, the decisions it would discern, and, choosing his words with care, “the calling of our bishops.” “I didn’t say the election of bishops,” he pointed out, nudging the room toward reverence rather than mere procedure. None of it, he charged, may be clutched as a human accomplishment: “All this must not be held as our own. They belong to God.” Even the denomination’s remarkable growth — more than seven thousand congregations across more than fifty annual conferences — he laid at the same throne, crediting not the Church’s labor but the Spirit who multiplies disciples across the earth.

From worship, the delegates would rise to petitions and plenary, to the ordinary and consequential labor of a General Conference. But the morning had already fixed the terms. The people called Global Methodist exist, Sablan reminded them, for one mission — to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to spread the beauty of scriptural holiness across the globe — and that mission rests on a personal foundation the Church cannot delegate.

As John Wesley had put it, and Sablan made his own: “Without being holy myself, I cannot promote real holiness in others.” Be holy in all you do, the charge had come — because the One who calls is holy.

Global Methodist Church Elects Its First Full-Time Slate of Bishops

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:31:24 GMT

For the first time, the Church has elected a regular, full-time Assembly of Bishops to serve six-year terms. Under the theme "The Beauty of Holiness," the Global Methodist Church reconvened for the Wednesday afternoon plenary of the 2026 General Conference in Johannesburg, South Africa. Delegates turned to one of the weightiest tasks entrusted to a gathered Church: electing those who would serve as its bishops. What began in worship and prayer moved, in the fullness of the deliberative work, to the sacred act of discernment by which the body chose the general superintendents who will lead the denomination into its next season.

Following the two-year interim episcopacy established at the 2024 Convening General Conference in San José, Costa Rica, the delegates in Johannesburg elected eight bishops to lead the denomination through the 2026–2032 sexennial. Those elected will be consecrated at General Conference in the historic manner, with their terms of service beginning November 5, 2026.

The election followed the process set forth in ¶604 of the "Book of Doctrines and Discipline." In the months before the conference, a plenary body composed of area committee representatives from each of the denomination's duly organized annual conferences gathered to define eight episcopal areas, each drawing together six to eight annual conferences from different parts of the world. As the Global Episcopacy Committee has emphasized, bishops in the Global Methodist Church do not hold jurisdiction over a single region; they serve as general superintendents of the whole Church, and the episcopal areas reflect the global character of the connection, with no area drawing more than four conferences from the same continent.

Each area committee on episcopacy interviewed and evaluated the episcopal nominees and produced a ranked list of its top candidates, shared with the delegates ahead of the conference to guide their prayerful discernment. In Johannesburg, the full body of the General Conference elected one bishop to each defined episcopal area, with at least sixty percent support required to elect. Delegates could not cast a vote for the same candidate for more than one episcopal area on a single ballot.

Ballot by ballot, delegates waited with bated breath as each episcopal area was taken up in turn, the balloting proceeding methodically through all eight areas before the outcomes were announced together at the close of each set. A total of five ballots were necessary to elect the full slate of eight bishops. The delegates elected the following bishops to serve the eight episcopal areas of the Global Methodist Church for the 2026–2032 sexennial.

“This is a sacred trust, and the delegates have carried it prayerfully,” said Rev. Dr. Chris Ritter, chair of the Global Episcopacy Committee. “We give thanks for eight leaders whose lives reach from Africa and Asia to the Americas and Europe – a slate that looks much like the global Church it will serve.”

With the slate complete, the Church gave thanks for those set apart to a ministry of visionary servant leadership and general oversight. The election of a full-time episcopacy marks a milestone in the young life of the Global Methodist Church — a global connection gathered in the beauty of holiness.

Bishop-Elect

Luther Oconor

Episcopal Area 1

Tanzania, Covenant Philippines, India, Mega Manila, Philippines, Panama, Mississippi-West Tennessee, Trinity

Bishop-Elect

Jonathan Lee

Episcopal Area 2

Bulgaria, Mexico, MidTexas, Northeast, Afrika Mashariki, Korean-American

Bishop

Mark Webb

Episcopal Area 3

Central Nigeria, South Carolina, Peru, Upper Midwest, Florida, South Africa

Bishop-Elect

Lyndol Loyd

Episcopal Area 4

North Alabama, Thailand, MidSouth, West Plains, Western Pacific, Northeast Nigeria

Bishop-Elect

Jerry Kulah

Episcopal Area 5

Ethiopia Nazrawiyan, Great Lakes, Virginia, Southern Nigeria, Oasis, Grain Coast

Bishop

Eduard Khegay

Episcopal Area 6

Central African Republic, Central Russia, East Russia-Central Asia, Northwest Russia-Belarus, South Russia, Democratic Republic of Congo

Bishop-Elect

Paul Lawler

Episcopal Area 7

Venezuela, South Georgia, North Georgia, Central Europe, Zambia, Northern Nigeria, Alabama Emerald Coast

Bishop

Carolyn Moore

Episcopal Area 8

Allegheny West, North Carolina, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Heartland

Half the Work Behind Them: Delegates Move Through Legislation

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 20:29:55 GMT

“In the United States, we would call this day Hump Day,” Norma Morrison told the delegates as she presented Wednesday’s agenda — the midpoint of the 2026 General Conference, and the moment the gathering turned in earnest from the work of its legislative committees to the work of the whole body. The days of committee deliberation now behind them, delegates spent Wednesday’s plenary at the Sandton Convention Centre acting on that work petition by petition, before Bishop Jeff Greenway and the presiding team would hand the afternoon over to the long-anticipated election of the denomination’s bishops.

Greenway, presiding alongside Bishop Carolyn Moore, opened with a word of explanation that set the tone for the day’s deeper business. He, alongside Bishops Scott Jones and Kenneth Levingston, was carrying the chair, he noted, precisely because they were not among those standing in the coming election; colleagues who were would not preside until their own elections were decided. “So you’re stuck with us,” he said, “until we get this done.”

Much of the morning moved through consent agendas — the efficient machinery by which each legislative committee brings forward petitions it recommends for adoption and, separately, those it recommends for rejection, so that the body can affirm a committee’s work in a single vote unless a delegate asks to lift an item out for debate.

Six committees reported in turn: Judicial Administration, chaired by Jimmy Towson; Constitution, Connectional Organization and Finance, chaired by Clark Atkins; Doctrine and Sacraments, chaired by Matt O’Reilly; Local Church, chaired by Brandon Nichols; Ministry, chaired by Thadeus Sales; and Conferences, chaired by Beth Ann Cook. The Connectional Organization and Finance Committee alone handled roughly a quarter of all petitions before the conference, with the Local Church Committee following, having worked through 122 petitions. Delegates repeatedly navigated the process’s one counterintuitive turn — that to sustain a committee’s recommendation not to approve a petition, one votes yes.

One of the morning’s clearest notes of joy came with a suspension of the rules to consider a covenant of understanding between the Global Methodist Church and the Korean Methodist Church. Bishop Moore, framing the work of the Ecumenical Relationships Commission, described such covenants as rare opportunities to recognize a particular affinity within the wider body of Christ, and announced that an envoy of eight Korean bishops would arrive the next day for a signing ceremony. Speaking in favor, the Rev. Leo Park of the Northeast Conference, born and raised in South Korea, tied the moment to the conference theme: “The beauty of holiness includes the beauty of unity.” The body affirmed the covenant unanimously.

As the noon hour approached, Chris Ritter, chair of the Global Episcopacy Committee, walked the delegates through the discernment that had brought them to the brink of electing eight bishops to the denomination’s first full six-year terms. Reaching back to Acts 6 — “select from among yourselves seven men of good standing, full of the Spirit and of wisdom” — he described a grassroots process in which representatives of every annual conference had shaped eight international Episcopal areas, and area committees had produced ordered lists of nominees after “hundreds of hours of prayer, study, interviews, conversation, and discernment.” He asked them to hold the coming hour as worship rather than contest. By then the room had grown quiet.

Delegates who had spent the morning sustaining and rejecting petitions one vote at a time understood that the next votes would be of a different order — not amending church law but now naming shepherds. Half the work of General Conference now lay behind them, with the eight ballots and the calling of the Church's bishops waiting on the other side of the hour.

Drums, Dishes, and Delight: Global Methodists Celebrate Africa

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 19:53:23 GMT

The business of the day had ended, but the Sandton Convention Centre was only beginning to come alive. As the sun set over Johannesburg on Wednesday, the hall that had held hours of General Conference deliberation, elections, and legislation was transformed for a Celebration of Africa — an evening set apart for delegates and attendees to lay down their agendas and take up celebration. As a church gathered on the African continent for the first time in its history, it was a night many had been waiting for. The evening came in music, in food, in fabric, and in the unhurried delight of God's people from every corner of the globe enjoying one another's company.

It began, as the best gatherings often do, with the music. The floor shook under indlamu, then the street-born snap of Pantsula and the slap-and-stomp of gumboot dancers; the Wits cultural dancers took their turn, followed by the women of Abafazi Bonyawo, the music of Inciyo, a brass band that filled the hall wall to wall, and Shenge to carry the night on. No translation was needed; the joy of it carried on its own.

The aromas told their own story. Buffet tables offered a spread of African cuisine — pap and chakalaka, jolof rice, Shisa nyama style boerewors, Giriyama fish curry, Xhosa style samp and beans, and malva pudding for those with a sweet tooth. For many international delegates, it was a first taste of the flavors that shape daily life across the host continent; for others, it was the comfort of home carried into a global gathering.

Perhaps nothing captured the spirit of the night more than the garb. Delegates arrived in an array of traditional dress, including patterned West African kente and ankara, Zulu umqhele, Xhosa beadwork, and more, turning the hall into a moving tapestry of the church's global family. Attendees from outside Africa were welcomed to join in, given the opportunity to purchase pieces created by local artisans as part of the evening.

A Celebration of Africa was, on its surface, a party. But those who planned it understood it as something more. The Global Methodist Church describes its mission as making disciples of Jesus Christ and spreading scriptural holiness across the globe — and evenings like this one are where global stops being an adjective and becomes a lived reality. Relationships formed over shared food and song do not end when the music stops; they become the connective tissue of a movement still learning the shape of its life together.

As the last songs gave way to embraces and quiet conversation, delegates carried something back to their hotels that no petition could legislate: a deeper affection for one another, and a fuller picture of the beauty on display across the whole household of God.

Celebration of Africa - Dinner Menu

Wed, 02 Sep 2026 05:38:59 GMT

Starters

Roast glazed beetroot salad ⅼ cinnamon - nutmeg spice ⅼ burnt goat cheese crumble

Three beans salad ⅼ curry spices ⅼ cucumber spaghetti ⅼ fresh coriander

African style Harissa laced baby potato salad ⅼ chilli mayo ⅼ rocket leaves

Vegetable tabbouleh, with Fattoush salad

Date salad, orange supreme, red onion, chives

Green garden salad ⅼ roasted brinjal, zucchini, carrot & butternut ⅼ Avocado and mustard aioli

Peri peri chicken livers ⅼ Mozambique flavours & vegetable ribbons in garlic-thyme marinade

Included: Enjoy a self-served cold table spread of: assorted lettuce, tomato variation, olives,

cucumber, mushroom and assortment of dressings, condiments & a Bread display

Main Course

Traditional cooked beef tripe ⅼ with spicy dumpling

Braised beef short rib ⅼ glazed carrots, butterbeans & pearl onions

Shisa nyama style boerewors with chakalaka

Tagine of chicken legs and thighs

Kenyan Fish curry”Giriyama”

Xhosa style samp & beans

Jolof Rice

Pap cakes with chakalaka ⅼ gratined with cheddar

Vegetable mac n’ cheese, spinach & ricotta ravioli, coconut, okra, Cheddar

Vegetable duet ⅼ roast pumpkin & creamed spinach ⅼ toasted pumpkin seeds in balsamic

Dessert

Malva pudding & custard

Delectable Mini trifles

Mini carrot cakes

Fresh seasonal fruit salad & cream

Crouquenbouche (Tower of profiteroles)

Chocolate mousse

Passion fruit brulee

Doctrine and Sacraments Committee Considers Proposed Articles of Faith

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 20:39:27 GMT

The Doctrine and Sacraments Legislative Committee gathered this week for what Chair Matthew O’Reilly described as one of the most important tasks the group would undertake— “to start working on a doctrinal standard for the Church.” The committee began the slow, careful work of considering a proposed, combined Articles of Faith for the Global Methodist Church.

That the Church would take up this question in Johannesburg is itself part of the story. Meeting on the African continent for the first time, the 2026 General Conference has gathered under the theme “The Beauty of Holiness,” and few items on its agenda reach as deeply into the identity of the denomination as its foundational statement of belief. Paragraph 106 of the “Book of Doctrines and Discipline" arrived with seven pieces of legislation and four resolutions attached. Early in the session, the committee voted to use Petition 1441, the report of the Discipleship, Doctrine, and Just Ministry Commission, as its base text for consideration as delegate Greg Stover put it, the body would have “one base from which to work on the articles.”

To explain that base, the committee turned to the Commission's chair, Dr. David Watson, clergy of the Allegheny West Annual Conference. The charge, he recalled, had come from the 2024 Convening General Conference with striking simplicity: the commission was told to “combine the articles and the confession” – merging the historic Methodist Articles of Religion with the Evangelical United Brethren Confession of Faith – “and that was really it.”

From that simple mandate the commission assembled a writing team of clergy and laity, men and women with international representation, and divided the work article by article.

Throughout, Watson returned to a single conviction: the statement did not belong to its authors. “There are articles in here that I would state differently,” he told the committee. “But it's not David Watson's document. It's the Church's document.” The aim, he explained, was to produce something “expressive of Wesleyan and orthodox theology” that could be “adopted by the whole Church” – nothing novel, nothing inventive. “We weren't constructing doctrine on our own,” he said. “We were retrieving doctrine for the Church.”

That posture of retrieval did not mean the commission avoided the questions of the present moment. Combining the two source documents surfaced redundant material, which the team removed. But it also revealed gaps the writers felt they could not, in Watson's words, be “irresponsible and negligent” enough to leave unaddressed. Among those areas was theological anthropology — broadly, the Christian understanding of what it means to be human. Watson referenced the view that theological anthropology has become a significant area of doctrinal debate in the present age, comparing its contemporary importance to debates surrounding Christology and the Trinity in the fourth and fifth centuries. “We added a short piece on theological anthropology,” he said, “because that really is the most acute issue of our day.”

He was equally candid about the scrutiny the draft had endured. The Articles passed through the Assembly of Bishops, a review team of roughly fifty readers who commented on every article, and Wesleyan theologians from outside the Global Methodist Church, before the Church's communications team carried the draft out through its official channels, opening it for comment to anyone who wished to weigh in. The Commission worked through the feedback line by line – not adopting every suggestion, since some contradicted others, but, Watson insisted, taking each seriously. For instance, when early readers worried that language calling human beings “fundamentally good” might be misheard as Pelagian, the Commission revised it.

By the time the text had reached the committee floor, it stood at what Watson described as the fourth stage of its vetting.

Watson closed his overview by presenting the proposed articles as “a labor of love for the church.” And its fate, he was quick to add, rests where it belongs with the delegates at General Conference. “I do pray that the Church will adopt these articles," he said, “but if they don't, that's the will of the Church, because it's about the will of the body.”

The discussion that followed made plain how much care remains. Delegates wrestled with the ordering of the articles, the language describing Holy Scripture, use of the word “inerrancy,” how the article on the Holy Spirit should render the Creed's teaching on the Spirit's procession, and more.

Discussion and consideration of amendments were continuing through the committee’s Tuesday meetings, which had not concluded at the time of publication. Following the committee process, the petition containing the proposed Articles of Faith is expected to come before the plenary later this week.

In the meantime, delegates continued the careful work of considering language intended to express the Church’s received faith for a global denomination. For a General Conference gathered under the theme ‘The Beauty of Holiness,’ the committee’s deliberations reflected both the weight of the task before it and the prayerful posture with which delegates approached it.

“Beauty Has Come for You”: Conviction as Grace in Day Three Worship

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:38:59 GMT

Delegates gathered for worship on Tuesday morning at the Sandton Convention Centre for a start to the third day of the 2026 General Conference. A call to worship rose in English and Russian, Scripture was read in Slovak, and “Holy, Holy, Holy” filled the room in a chorus of languages — the beauty of holiness already on display in the gathered people of the church before a word of the sermon was spoken.

Into this sweet spirit came the morning's preacher, the Rev. Diane Ury, who serves alongside her husband, Bill, as National Ambassador for Holiness in the Salvation Army. With seminary education at Asbury Theological Seminary and a Master of Arts in Theology from Wesley Biblical Seminary, she is a self-described theology nerd. In addition to serving with the Salvation Army, Ury has been affiliated with other Wesleyan strands, and when life allows, worships at Asbury Global Methodist Church in Raleigh, North Carolina. She spoke with a distinctively Wesleyan accent to a theme woven through the entire conference: that holiness begins not with rules and standards but with the character of God himself.

Preaching from Isaiah 6, Ury framed the prophet's vision as a picture of what happens when the beauty of the Holy One grasps hold of a person. Isaiah's cry, “Woe is me, for I am a man of unclean lips,” was not despair, she suggested, but the gift of conviction: God graciously revealing to Isaiah who He truly was so that he might be cleansed and sent. “Conviction,” she said, “is the beauty of our holy God coming for us.”

Conviction, Ury argued, is not condemnation but one of God's most gracious and intimate movements toward the human heart, because he longs for wholeness. Drawing on John Wesley, she pressed past sin that no longer reigns to sin that no longer remains — the Wesleyan hope that “inbred sin” can be cleansed and the heart filled with perfect love. A holy life, in her telling, is a desperate life, one lived continuously face to face with Jesus, feeding on His Word, and clinging to the means of grace.

Ury did not exempt herself, or the room, from the warning. Idolatry, she reminded delegates, can attach itself to good things — education, even a denomination — and holiness can curdle into pride. “I know people who have PhDs in holiness,” she said, “and they are mean.” Her own story followed: top of her seminary class, yet self-righteous, judgmental, and unkind in the very name of the doctrine she taught, until the God of holy love convicted and cleansed her. She named it the most profound experience of being loved that she had ever known.

Ury tied the vision home to the mission of the moment. The seraph's burning coal that touched Isaiah's mouth, she said, prefigures salvation in Jesus Christ, who does not rescue from a distance but takes hold of corrupted human nature and pours himself into it. This good news of recreation, she told the conference, is the message God has raised up the Global Methodist Church to proclaim across the world.

The worship moved from the pulpit to the table, as it had throughout the conference, delegates receiving Holy Communion by intinction and serving one another. Ury's closing words lingered over the elements as the room came forward: “Beauty has come for you.” The holy life, she said, is continuous, desperate, face to face — beholding, breathing, and becoming.

What Comes Next in the Election of Bishops

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:36:40 GMT

In the opening days of the 2026 General Conference in Johannesburg, the Global Methodist Church took a concrete first step toward electing its first regular, full-time slate of bishops. On the qualifying ballot for the denomination's interim bishops, two of the six who were elected to interim service at the 2024 Convening General Conference crossed the three-fourths threshold of approval required to move forward. Bishops Carolyn Moore and John Pena Auta now advance to the main ballot, where the real work of election begins.

The moment carries weight beyond the arithmetic. When the GMC gathered in San José, Costa Rica in 2024, it elected six bishops — Carolyn Moore, Jeff Greenway, John Pena Auta, Kenneth Levingston, Kimba Evariste and Leah Hidde-Gregory — to two-year interim terms, a deliberate provision meant to leave room for additional annual conferences to join the Church before standard elections were held. Bishops Mark Webb and Scott Jones were appointed as full time bishops at Convening General Conference to facilitate the transition as the denomination got its feet on the ground. Bishop Eduard Khegay, another full time bishop, was received by the Assembly of Bishops in June of 2025 to serve newly formed annual conferences in Russia.

Johannesburg is where that season closes and a new one opens. For the first time, the Church will elect bishops to defined six-year terms, renewable once, and it will do so through a process built deliberately from the ground up.

Sunday’s qualifying ballot was a threshold, not an election. Under the “Book of Doctrines and Discipline,” no more than three of the six interim bishops may be carried forward to a full six-year term at this General Conference. To reach the main ballot at all, an interim bishop needed to earn the approval of three-fourths of the delegates. Delegates were free to vote for as many of the interim bishops as they wished; had more than three surpassed the threshold, only the three with the greatest support would have advanced. With two names clearing the mark, both move forward.

That result settles the qualifying question and turns the Conference's attention to the fuller slate of nominees who have come up through the new process — elders nominated by annual conference delegations, vetted and ranked by the area committees on episcopacy over the past several months, and if listed on a top five ranking, interviewed on video so delegates could come to know them before casting a vote.

Beginning Wednesday, the General Conference moves to the general ballot — the election of bishops to specific episcopal areas. This is the heart of the redesigned process, and it looks different from anything the Church has done before.

Each bishop is elected not to the episcopacy in the abstract, but to a particular episcopal area, each area comprising several annual conferences that may be non-contiguous and international in shape. Those areas were defined in May by a plenary body of lay and clergy members from each annual conference, and each area committee submitted a ranked list of the top five nominees it would recommend to serve its area.Those rankings, distributed to delegates by the end of July, are expected to weigh heavily as the balloting proceeds. Where the same nominee tops more than one area's list, the Global Episcopacy Committee has committed to issuing guidance to help delegates navigate the overlap.

The standard for election is significant support: a nominee must receive at least sixty percent of the plenary body's vote to be elected to an episcopal area. Delegates may not cast a vote for the same person in more than one area on the same ballot, and the two interim bishops who cleared the qualifying ballot now stand alongside the rest of the nominees on this general ballot, eligible for election to an area like any other. Delegates aren't just choosing who should be a bishop; they're choosing who goes where, one name per area per ballot.

Those elected will be consecrated in Johannesburg before the Conference concludes on September 5, and will begin their episcopal service sixty days after its close. The Conference also intends to honor the bishops whose service is drawing to an end.

The design is more complex than past practice, and by intention. It gives every annual conference a real voice in both the shape of the area it will help form and the leader who will serve it; it vets nominees in something closer to an interview than an acclamation; and it guards against any single block setting the outcome. Above all, it aims for a Spirit-led election worthy of the Church's calling. With 21 nominees standing for election, beginning Wednesday, the wider body will discern who is called to lead.

One Body, Many Parts: Connectional Council Reports to the Plenary

Tue, 01 Sep 2026 17:30:52 GMT

“How would you describe your church?” asked Rev. Dr. Jessica LaGrone, chair of the first Connectional Council of the Global Methodist Church, as she stood before more than 1,300 delegates and guests gathered at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg. Perhaps it is a historic building, she offered, or a gymnasium, a village, or the shade of a tree. Or perhaps it was the church seen in that very room – a global body gathered from across the world in worship and work together.

LaGrone turned to the Apostle Paul, who described the church as one body of many parts. Drawing on 1 Corinthians 12 and her own background as a “recovering biology major,” she reflected on how the systems of a living body – respiratory and circulatory, nervous and immune – work in seamless partnership so that the whole might flourish. “Friends, this is connectionalism,” she said. The local church remains the heartbeat of the Global Methodist Church, the living cells of the body; the work of the Connectional Council and its commissions exists so that local churches around the globe might receive the connections and nourishment they need to thrive.

It was an intentional frame for the report that followed. Instituted two years ago at the Convening General Conference in San José, Costa Rica, the Connectional Council is a body of 25 global leaders that has met every other week since. In roughly 18 months, LaGrone reported, the council has established foundational connectional structures meant to remain lean, adaptable, and local church-centered. Working with the Conferences Commission, it has approved each new annual conference and emerging area, welcoming delegations to Johannesburg who were not present in Costa Rica. In partnership with the Finance, Administration, Pensions and Benefits Commission, it has overseen the general church budget, emphasizing transparency, accountability, and responsible stewardship. And in close coordination with the General Conference Commission, it prepared for the gathering now underway on the African continent.

Among the report's most anticipated announcements was the work of the Global Liturgy Task Force, led by the Rev. Dr. Tesia Mallory. The draft liturgies of the Global Methodist Church – some already in use in worship at this General Conference – will be released on October 1, 2026, translated into all the official languages of the denomination. A three-month review period will invite feedback from around the connection, with a final editing process beginning in January and publication anticipated in 2027.

LaGrone was careful to name a caution alongside the progress. As Ezekiel saw in the valley of dry bones, she reminded the body that a skeleton can be fully assembled, bone to bone and tissue to tissue, and still remain lifeless unless the Spirit of God breathes into it. Simply being connected, she said, is not enough. The Church must continually welcome the Holy Spirit into the structures the General Conference sets in motion, or risk becoming the “dead sect” that John Wesley, the founder of Methodism, feared.

The report also carried the work of the Council's Strategic Planning team, who presented not a legislative proposal but a strategic framework — “more of a direction than a directive,” as LaGrone put it. Rooted in the mission and vision affirmed in Costa Rica, the framework names six values—scriptural, empowered, Wesleyan, missional, global, and connectional. In addition, the framework identifies four shared strategic areas, and three spheres — the local church, the annual conference, and the global church — each with its own calling and none existing for itself. Delegates were invited to set down their voting devices and stand in affirmation that this was indeed the direction they discerned God leading.

Two disciplinary actions closed the report. Under paragraph 802.2 of the “Book of Doctrines and Discipline,” the General Conference voted to continue the seven connectional commissions named in paragraph 802.3, subject to any changes made through the petitions process. Under paragraph 208, the body also voted to affirm the actions of the Connectional Council over the previous two years.

Before the report concluded, the members of the Council and its commissions were invited to stand together and be recognized — the systems of the body, LaGrone said, that have carried life-giving nourishment all the way to the cellular level of the local church. “This is not my report,” she told the delegates. “This is our report and our work.” One body, she reminded them, of many parts, breathing together and connected one to another for the sake of the mission.

Further explore the work of the connectional commissions and the strategic framework:

Watch the connectional commissions video report , in which each commission chair shares the fruit of the past two years.

Review the strategic framework slide deck — the graphic of the three spheres, the six values, and the four strategic areas presented to the plenary.

The Gospel in the Streets: Mission Experience Comes to Johannesburg

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 19:51:53 GMT

The 2026 General Conference of the Global Methodist Church gathered this week at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg for the first meeting of the denomination's chief decision-making body on African soil. Yet before the first petition reached the floor of General Conference, the Church had already turned its attention outward — from the conference hall to the streets, townships, and congregations of South Africa through the Mission Experience.

Conceived as far more than a break from legislative business, the Mission Experience carries forward a conviction that has shaped Methodism from its beginning: that holy conferencing and hands-on ministry belong together. Inside the ballroom, delegates deliberate, elect, and amend the Book of Doctrines and Discipline ; outside it, that same body of disciples takes the Gospel into the community. The gathering's theme, The Beauty of Holiness, is meant to be seen as much as spoken.

The Experience builds on the model first tested at the 2024 Convening Conference in Costa Rica, where delegates left the conference site to serve, pray, and share their faith. More often than not, they discovered the Spirit at work among themselves along the way. Tim Beardsley of the Northeast Conference, an ordained elder commissioned as an evangelist to Africa, leads the effort. The team he serves alongside is itself a picture of the global Church: members drawn from South Africa, Liberia, Zimbabwe, Fiji, and the United States, lay and clergy.

The Experience opened with a day of evangelism and prayer training in Soweto, gathered at Uncle Tom's Community Centre, a hall with room for nearly a thousand. Held apart from the convention center by design, the day was intended to draw General Conference attendees and members of the Johannesburg community into one room and one purpose. From there, the ministry moves into the neighborhoods, visiting sites anchored by Global Methodist congregations across Soweto — established churches and new church plants alike — where the work of prayer, proclamation, and presence continues. Other activities include clergy & leadership training, health checks, a children’s Bible camp, and Christian discipleship discussions.

For a movement that has spent recent seasons reclaiming its theology and its Wesleyan roots, the Mission Experience is a reminder that Methodism was forged not only in the study but in the field. As the Church gathers in Johannesburg to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to spread scriptural holiness across the globe, the beauty of holiness is on full display — not only under the lights of the conference hall, but out along the highways and byways where the work of the Kingdom is done.

“Take Off Your Shoes:” A Charge to Seek Holiness by Rev. Dr. Portia Kuzanga

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 19:49:02 GMT

“Take off your sandals, for the place where you are standing is holy ground.” The words God spoke to Moses at the burning bush hung over the second day of the 2026 General Conference of the Global Methodist Church as keynote speaker Rev. Dr. Portia Kuzanga preached a powerful message. As delegates gathered in the Sandton Convention Centre, they discovered that an ordinary Monday morning could become holy ground.

Before any of the day's decisions, song rose in many tongues, a picture of a Church gathered from across the globe and meeting on the African continent for the first time in its history. Voices lifted in Swahili and Yoruba alongside English and other languages as worship leaders wove the languages of Africa into praise of the one true God, and prayer drew on the Apostle Paul's vision of a Church “without stain or wrinkle... but holy and blameless.” From its first notes, the morning pressed toward the Conference theme, the Beauty of Holiness.

Bringing greetings from the worship subcommittee of the General Conference Commission, Tesia Mallory introduced Kuzanga, an ordained elder in the Northeast Annual Conference affiliated with the Zimbabwe Annual Conference. Before Kuzanga preached, the congregation surrounded her in prayer.

Preaching from Exodus 3, Kuzanga framed the conference around a single plea. “Before we vote, before we plan, before we build,” she said, “may we see God.

Holiness, she reminded the conference, is not scheduled or manufactured, but encountered — and it came to an unlikely man. Moses was a fugitive some eighty years old, hidden in the wilderness with his best years seemingly behind him. Yet there, tending a flock, heaven interrupted earth. God called him twice by name, she observed, and never by his failures. “Your past may explain where you have been. It does not have the final word about where God can take you.”

The God who meets people in the wilderness rather than only in the palace, she warned, is not imprisoned by the structures a Church leans on. The danger is a people so addicted to motion that they grow busy doing the work of God while forgetting to behold the God of the work. Her first word to the Conference was as plain as the text: “Global Methodist Church, stop. Stop long enough to see him.”

The command at the bush became the heart of her message. Sandals marked status and the right to stand on one's own terms, she explained, and God asked Moses to surrender all of it, for “holiness always produces humility.” Nor is holiness ever separate from compassion: the God who declared the ground holy also declared, “I have seen the misery of my people... I have come down to rescue them.”

Encounter, then, must become obedience. “The church does not need more polished leaders,” Kazunga concluded. “She needs barefoot leaders, ordinary people who have encountered an extraordinary God.”

God does not call the equipped but equips the called. “Take off your shoes. Lose your excuses. And go.”

The sermon flowed directly into Holy Communion, presided over by Bishop Auta, as delegates served one another the bread and cup across their tables.

Closing the morning’s worship, General Conference Secretary Tom Lambrecht gave thanks for praise lifted in many cultures and languages "all aimed at the one true God,” then turned to the day's business. Delegates adjourned to legislative committees for the rest of the day.

The day's real labor still lies ahead in the committee rooms. But the Global Methodist Church took it up, having first done what its preacher asked: it stopped and stood on holy ground.

Legislative Committees Take Up the Church's Work in Johannesburg

Mon, 31 Aug 2026 19:47:19 GMT

The heart of the General Conference's legislative work is now underway in Johannesburg, where the eight legislative committees that stand between a submitted petition and a change to the Book of Doctrines and Discipline (BDD) have begun weighing more than 440 petitions before the 2026 General Conference.

Every thought in the BDD begins as a petition — a written proposal that any lay member, clergy member, or official group may submit, asking the General Conference to change, add, or remove a paragraph. It is the ordinary way any member sets the Church's legislative power in motion.

“Every voice matters, and every voice can be heard,” said Rev. Lamar Oliver in a recent Across the Globe podcast episode. Oliver serves as the General Conference Petitions Secretary and Assistant General Conference Secretary, noting that for 2026, even honorifics and titles were removed from petitioner names so that a proposal stands on its merits rather than its author's office.

Once a petition is submitted and verified, and its validity confirmed by the Reference Committee, it is assigned to one of eight committees, each carrying a defined portion of the discipline: Doctrine and Sacraments; Social Witness; Local Church; Ministry; Superintendency; Conferences; Constitution, Connectional Organization and Finance; and Judicial Administration. Every valid petition must be considered by its committee before it can reach the plenary floor, and within its assigned paragraphs a committee may accept a petition, amend it, or reject it.

That work looks different this year. Under the 2026 Plan of Organization , the Church stepped away from the extensive pre-conference virtual legislating used at the 2024 Convening General Conference and returned deliberation to the gathered in-person conference. In the weeks beforehand, the committees met virtually for a narrow purpose only — to elect their officers and receive parliamentary training. The real deliberation waited for Johannesburg.

“Reading a petition on a page is one thing,” said Mark Barrow, lay delegate from the MidSouth Annual Conference, “but hearing from the people who wrote it, and from members of the committee who see it completely differently, is another. You start to hear the heart behind the words. It is a real gift to be in person."

Much of the committee's early work is discernment among overlapping proposals. Because a single paragraph can draw a dozen petitions, committees have been trained to select one petition and perfect it rather than carry every version forward, focusing the body on a single, refined proposal. The Plan of Organization surrounds all of this with safeguards meant to keep procedures both orderly and gracious: a quorum is required for any action, proxy voting is not allowed, vote totals are announced publicly, meetings are recorded, and a minority that disagrees may file a report so its voice reaches the floor.

From there, the committees' recommendations move to the plenary session — and the committees do not have the last word. “No matter what a legislative committee does with a petition,” Oliver said, “the plenary ultimately has the final say.”

Petitions that win ninety percent or more of a committee's vote may be placed on a consent calendar and adopted together, though any group of ten delegates may pull an item off for full debate. By the time the Conference adjourns, every petition will have been acted upon in some way. Passed legislation is then woven into a new edition of the BDD and takes effect the following January 1 unless it specifies otherwise.

Not every petition becomes law — most do not — and that is not a failure of the process but a feature of it. A proposal may be withdrawn, ruled invalid, rejected in committee, or voted down on the floor, yet each one remains part of the Church's record of what its people were thinking in this season.

For the delegates doing this work, the days are long and the decisions consequential. But they have been asked to take up each petition first in prayer, reading it as the honest work of a fellow believer who loves God and the Church.

As Oliver put it, “This is not our church. This is God's church.” In the Global Methodist Church, debate is not division; it is discernment — and it is in these eight committee rooms that the discernment is taking place.

Gratitude and Challenge in the Episcopal Address

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 20:35:16 GMT

As delegates returned for Sunday's afternoon session at the Sandton Convention Centre in Johannesburg, they were called back to their seats with the sounds of “Turn Your Eyes Upon Jesus.” What followed moved from gratitude to challenge — a celebration of how far God has carried a young movement, and a candid summons to become what it aspires to be.

Mike Grant, a clergy member of the Allegheny West Annual Conference and Chair of the General Conference Commission, brought the Commission's report with a note of wonder. Welcoming delegates to the first General Conference held on African soil, he invited the body to give thanks for a feat that, only weeks earlier, had seemed impossible. Preparations had been laid for a hybrid conference because so few delegates from several nations had received visas. Then, Grant recounted, the people of the Church began to pray — and delegates from Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of Congo, and Ethiopia, now standing to the applause of the conference, had arrived in numbers greater than any previous gathering. “Only an act of God could change this,” he had once believed — “and there was.”

Grant also described a church at work beyond the ballroom — mission teams running a vacation Bible school, a medical clinic, pastor training, and feeding programs across Johannesburg. On behalf of the Commission, he then moved to adopt the Plan of Organization and Covenant for Our Life Together, which was approved.

The session then turned to the Episcopal Address, delivered by Bishop Scott Jones on behalf of the Assembly of Bishops. Introduced as the Assembly's historian, Jones framed his address as both thanksgiving and challenge, rooting it in the hymns of Charles Wesley. As the body sang “And Are We Yet Alive,” he urged the delegates not to refight old battles. To any still weary from disaffiliation, or suffering what he called “post-denominational stress syndrome,” he offered a word: “Be healed.”

Borrowing eight terms Bishop Jeff Greenway has used to describe the Church, Jones named the Global Methodist Church a “Bible believing, Jesus following, Spirit-led, grace filled, global, Wesleyan, mission focused movement.” He gave thanks for progress in six of these marks and raised caution about the last two. Scripture stands as the supreme authority, he affirmed, and the Church is called to become ever more like its Lord; Jones led the delegates in the Wesleyan Covenant Prayer — “I am no longer my own but thine.” Holiness, he said, is the Christian's life goal, and “holiness is beautiful,” echoing the theme of the conference. He gave thanks, too, for a grace-filled church, a global church now gathering in ten languages, and a Wesleyan church whose deepest word about God is love — underscored as the body sang “Love Divine, All Loves Excelling.”

Then came the challenges. Is the Church truly a movement? To be one, Jones argued, requires alignment, nimbleness, and risk-taking — resisting the procedural distractions that echo the old denomination, and daring to try new things even at the risk of failing forward. “We are no longer in a denomination where factions are at war with each other,” he declared. “Instead, we are at war with the devil.” And is the Church truly mission-focused? Here Jones was most searching. Decades in a dying denomination had bred bad habits — evangelism treated as a dirty word, church planting made a low priority — and he called the Church to shake them off, pointing to the churches of Africa and Asia as teachers.

Bishop Jones closed confident that the God who has brought the Church this far is still leading it. Turning to “Captain of Israel's Host,” he recalled the pillar of cloud and fire that led Israel through the wilderness and applied the promise to the assembly in Johannesburg: “We will not miss our providential way.” He left the delegates with the words spoken to Joshua — “Be strong and courageous; do not be afraid, for the Lord your God will be with you wherever you go.”

It was an address that held celebration and challenge together without strain. The beauty of holiness was not merely a phrase printed on the program; it was, in the singing and the summons of that afternoon, the very calling the Global Methodist Church had gathered on African soil to pursue — to make disciples of Jesus Christ and to spread scriptural holiness across the globe.

Holiness Begins With God: General Conference Opens in Johannesburg

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 20:35:08 GMT

The 2026 General Conference of the Global Methodist Church began not with the gavel but with worship. On Sunday morning, delegates, bishops, and guests from across six continents filled the ballroom at the Sandton Convention Centre and lifted their voices together — the first time the denomination's chief decision-making body has ever gathered on the African continent. Under the conference theme, “The Beauty of Holiness,” the opening worship set the tone for the days of deliberation, election, and mission to come: before the Church does its work, it worships the One who calls it.

Worship leaders Tesia Mallory and Tracy Winters, together with prayer team leader Laura Ballinger, guided a gathering that was, by design, a picture of the global church. Languages and musical traditions mingled as delegates from Zimbabwe, South Africa, the United States, the Philippines, and beyond sang side by side — worship offered not as the warm-up act for General Conference but as its very heart, the beauty of holiness put on display for the watching world.

Into that atmosphere of praise stepped Bishop Kenneth Levingston to preach the opening sermon. Bishop Levingston, who leads the MidSouth, Mid-Texas, and Panama Annual Conferences and serves on the Ministry and Higher Education Commission as a representative of the Assembly of Bishops, has served for seventeen years as senior pastor of Jones Memorial “The Higher Way” Church in Houston. His message carried a clear and grounding title: “Holiness Begins With God.”

Preaching from 1 Chronicles 16:23-33, Bishop Levingston pointed the conference to the source of the very holiness their theme celebrates. “Sing to the Lord, all the earth,” the passage begins, before rising to its charge: “Worship the Lord in the splendor of his holiness.” Holiness, the sermon underscored, is not first a human achievement or a program to be legislated. “The God we serve is indeed a holy God,” he preached — “the only holy one.” “Let me share with you: you're not holy. You may seem good, but you're not holy. You may preach until the paint comes off the wall, but you're not holy.” It begins with God, and the Church's calling is to reflect what it first receives.

That conviction turned toward the work the delegates had come to do. “It's in his presence that we find holiness,” Levingston preached. “If we do legislation at the highest level, if God's presence is not here, we have done nothing.” The point landed as both warning and invitation: “We're not here to get the legislation right. We're here to get our hearts right... to be who God has called us to be.” Recalling how David called the roll of all who carried the ark, he read a roll of his own — naming annual conference after annual conference from Bulgaria to Nigeria, Zimbabwe to the Philippines, the Congo to South Africa. “All of us are part of what God is doing,” he declared, “none of us above any other part of the body of Christ,” and tied the gathered praise straight to the denomination's mission: “we're going to make disciples of Jesus Christ, and we want to spread scriptural holiness across the globe.”

That framing set the work ahead in a particular light. A General Conference is, by necessity, a season of business: petitions received and acted upon, amendments to the Book of Doctrines and Discipline debated, and bishops elected for the denomination's first full six-year terms. Yet the opening worship insisted that all of it flows from a prior posture of praise — the fruit, too, of a denomination-wide 40 Days of Prayer campaign and an active GMC Prayer Network. Bishop Levingston left the conference with a benediction shaped like a summons: “May we start in this place, work in this place, struggle together in this place, and leave this place in the beauty of his holiness.” The business now begins in earnest. But it begins, as he reminded the global church, where holiness always begins — with God.

The Church's First Bishops, and the Path to Its Next

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 19:19:42 GMT

As the Global Methodist Church gathers in Johannesburg for General Conference 2026, it does so with gratitude for a group of leaders who accepted a particular and demanding calling: to serve as the denomination's first bishops during its formative years. Understanding who these leaders are, and how the Church has structured their possible continuation in office, offers a window into the care with which this young denomination is building its life together.

At the Convening General Conference in San José, Costa Rica, in September 2024, delegates elected the Church's first slate of bishops. By design, these were interim, part-time positions, established to guide the denomination through its earliest chapter until full-time bishops would be elected in 2026. The six bishops began their work on November 1, 2024:

Kimba Evariste
John Pena Auta
Leah Gregory
Kenneth Levingston
Carolyn Moore
Jeff Greenway

They joined full-time Bishops Scott Jones and Mark Webb, who had provided episcopal oversight through the denomination's transitional period.

The question of whether these interim bishops could stand for election to a full six-year term is not left to circumstance. The Book of Doctrines and Discipline (BDD) in ¶604.8 addresses this directly, establishing that a bishop may serve a maximum of two six-year terms, with any time served before 2026 not counting against those two terms.

The BDD then draws an intentional distinction. Bishops Jones and Webb were expressly permitted to stand for election at General Conference 2026. For those elected as interim bishops in Costa Rica, however, the path forward runs through the delegates themselves: no interim bishop may stand for election in 2026 unless first affirmed by at least a three-fourths vote of the delegates present and casting ballots. The BDD further provides that no more than half of the newly elected bishops may be re-elected to a six-year term, ensuring that the Church continues to welcome fresh leadership even as it honors proven service.

Jeff Greenway, Kenneth Levingston, Kimba Evariste, and Scott Jones are not seeking re-election and will be honored for their faithful service, with the title of Bishop Emeritus conferred upon those who have honorably completed active episcopal service. Bishop Mark Webb, having served through the transition rather than as an interim bishop, is standing for election and was not subject to the qualification ballot.

During Sunday’s plenary session, delegates considered the affirmation of the Global Methodist Church’s three remaining interim bishops. Bishop John Pena Auta and Bishop Carolyn Moore each received the 75 percent support required for affirmation to be considered for election. Bishop Leah Gregory did not reach the required threshold.

Following the vote, members of the Global Episcopacy Committee (GEC) consulted with Bishop Webb and the officers of Episcopal Area Two. After that conversation, the GEC reaffirmed its original guidance and continues to believe that Bishop Webb would be the best choice to serve Area Three as its assigned bishop.

Area Episcopacy Committee Two, which ranked Bishop Gregory first, also continues to stand by the rankings developed through its prayerful discernment process. “The Area Episcopacy Committee Two reached broad consensus on our full ranking of nominees, including unanimous agreement on our first recommendation,” said the Rev. Ryan Barnett, chair of Area Episcopacy Committee Two. “We stand by the discernment and work of the committee and by the rankings we submitted. While the General Conference ultimately determines who will move forward in the episcopal election process, we remain confident in the thoughtful and prayerful process that led to our recommendations.”

The GEC offers this reaffirmed guidance to the delegates of General Conference as they continue the important work of prayerfully electing and assigning bishops. "We ask the entire church to continue praying for wisdom, unity, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the election process."

In the coming days, delegates in Johannesburg will now elect and consecrate eight full-time bishops, each assigned to one of eight international episcopal areas and each serving as a general superintendent of the whole Church. Their six-year terms will begin on November 5, 2026.

2026 Worship Attire

Sun, 30 Aug 2026 12:32:14 GMT

Hello, Worship Team!

As we prepare to serve together at the Global Methodist Church General Conference 2026 in Johannesburg, we want our appearance to reflect the same warmth, unity, and joyful spirit that we hope to bring to our worship.

Our attire will be contemporary business casual —polished, comfortable, and current. We want to look cohesively coordinated, but we do not need to match exactly. Think harmony, not uniforms!

Base Colors

Please choose one or more of these dark or muted neutrals for the main portion of your outfit:

Black
Dark-wash denim blue
Dark chocolate brown
Navy
Muted khaki
Deep chestnut brown
Dark espresso brown

Coordinating Accent Colors

Add one or two of the following colors through a shirt, blouse, jacket, cardigan, scarf, tie, pocket square, jewelry, shoes, or a subtle pattern:

Bright turquoise
Tangerine orange
Soft ivory-white
Muted sage-teal
Pale aqua
Warm sand-gold
Muted olive green

You can view the full base and accent color swatch guide here. The colors are intended as a guide - you do not need to find an exact shade.

Jeans are absolutely welcome, especially dark-wash denim, as long as they are neat and free from holes or heavy distressing. Trousers, professional-length skirts and dresses, blouses, button-down shirts, polos, jackets, cardigans, and other contemporary business-casual pieces are also appropriate.

Please avoid shorts, short skirts or dresses, athletic wear, and clothing that is overly casual or distracting.

For those joining us from outside the United States, culturally appropriate professional or traditional attire is warmly welcomed. Please use the color palette as a coordinating guide where practical, while honoring the clothing traditions of your culture and context.

A special note for clergy: If you are clergy, please also bring your clergy robe and red stole to wear for the Bishops’ Consecration Service.

Most importantly, choose something in which you feel comfortable, confident, and ready to worship and serve. We want everyone’s personality to shine while creating a collective look that feels warm, contemporary, and beautifully coordinated.

Thank you for bringing your gifts, your heart, and your joyful spirit to this team. I am excited about the beautiful picture we will create together—both visually and through our worship!

Blessings of God's grace and peace,

Rev. Tracy Ann Winters

General Conference Worship Planning Team Co-Chair

Global Methodist General Conference 2026

Welcome to General Conference

Sat, 29 Aug 2026 20:49:59 GMT

Welcome to General Conference!

We are so glad you are here. To kick off the Beauty of Holiness, we are sharing key information to help the week run smoothly. In this update, you’ll learn about:

Room Configurations
Wi-Fi Access
Media Notice
Meeting Spaces and Schedules
Meals
Livestream Access
Live Translation
Electronics
Exhibitors

Thank you for joining us in South Africa for this historic gathering. We welcome the Holy Spirit as we do this important work together as a global church.

ROOM CONFIGURATIONS

The General Conference room is being reconfigured to ensure optimal use of the space for the work of the delegation .

The updated seating chart will be sent to all delegates as soon as it is finalized , and the new room configuration will be in place tomorrow morning .

When you arrive, pages will have the updated seating chart and will be available to help direct you to your assigned seat. Each row will also be clearly labeled to help you find your seating.

Thank you for your patience and flexibility as we prepare the space for our work together.

WI-FI ACCESS

To ensure reliable connectivity for essential General Conference functions, including delegate voting , the GeneralConference2026 Wi-Fi network is reserved exclusively for Delegates and authorized Key Stakeholders . All other attendees must use the Southern Sun Wi-Fi network.

Delegates & Authorized Key Stakeholders
Please connect to the “ GeneralConference2026 ” Wi-Fi network and check your notifications in Cvent for the password.

Observers
Please connect to the Southern Sun Wi-Fi network. You will be asked to answer a few questions before your connection is established.

We appreciate your cooperation in limiting access to the GeneralConference2026 network to authorized users. This will help us maintain reliable connectivity for voting and other critical conference functions.

Thank you for your understanding and cooperation!

MEDIA NOTICE

Please be aware that members of the local media and credentialed reporters are present and may be moving throughout the conference venue.

Photography, video, and interviews may take place during conference activities and in public areas. By attending General Conference, you may appear in photographs or video captured by members of the media for news coverage. Follow along on our official social media platforms to catch photos from the event.

Thank you for your awareness.

MEETING SPACES & SCHEDULES

Tomorrow is the first day of General Conference. Doors will open at 8:15 a.m. No one is permitted into the event space until after 8:15.

Like most conference centers, the indoor temperature can vary. Please plan accordingly and bring extra layers to ensure comfort throughout the conference.

As always, schedule updates will happen. Please continue to check the schedule on the General Conference. We appreciate your patience and grace as we work to update the app to reflect any changes. The best place to learn about schedule changes, room changes, etc. is in the General Conference app.

MEALS

Lunches and dinners will be provided onsite for those who have “meal" printed on their wristbands. All other attendees are responsible for their own meals outside the convention center. Breaks will be provided daily for ALL attendees.

Breakfast will be provided each morning in the hotel restaurant for guests. If time does not allow for you to have a sit-down breakfast, there will be an arrival break with continental breakfast provided in the exhibit hall at the Sandton Convention Center from 7-8 a.m., August 30 - September 5. We also recommend choosing the buffet as a quicker option.

As part of the Celebration of Africa event , dinner on Wednesday, September 2 will be available for ALL attendees.

LIVESTREAM ACCESS

For your friends and family members who are not with us in person, they can watch our livestream found on the Beauty of Holiness website . The sessions will also be available to view after General Conference.

LIVE TRANSLATION

Kudo is our official live translator during the event. There will be QR codes in each room for you to scan with your phone and follow along to the sessions. You can also access the links in the General Conference app. You do not need to download an app to access Kudo. There will be a Kudo help desk if you run into issues. Please bring your own earbuds or headphones if you are planning on using an audio version.

ELECTRONICS

You will need a Type M converter for plugging in electronics. All attendees are responsible for providing their own adapters.

If delegates are relying on a laptop or other device during the conference, ensure they fully charged. We will have some plugs available in the bar for limited use if urgent.

EXHIBITORS

Thank you to our wonderful exhibitors for supporting the Global Methodist Church. Please stop by the exhibit hall to learn about the organizations and groups.

Proposed Constitutional Amendment

Fri, 14 Aug 2026 14:00:30 GMT

It has come to our attention that Par. 213 of the Constitution limits who may submit a proposed constitutional amendment. It states only the General Conference or an annual conference may do so. Our understanding is that this language refers only to the plenary sessions of the General Conference or an annual conference, not a smaller body. All of the petitions submitted to amend the Constitution were submitted by individuals or annual conference delegations. Our understanding is that none of the currently proposed constitutional amendments would qualify under Par. 213 and would therefore be ruled invalid and not able to be considered.

The disqualification of all proposed constitutional amendments seems unfair and would hamper the General Conference’s ability to take advantage of the one-time exception given in Par. 213 that constitutional amendments considered at the 2026 conference only need a majority vote to be adopted. It also seems appropriate to make allowances for the fact that we are still learning and living into the processes of our new denomination.

Therefore, a constitutional amendment will be proposed on the first day of the General Conference that would allow all currently submitted amendments to be considered. It would further direct the Constitution, Connectional Organization, and Finance Legislative Committee to come back with a permanent clarification (via another amendment) as to who may submit proposed constitutional amendments under Par. 213.

Here is the proposed amendment that will be offered on the first day of the conference:

I move to Amend ¶ 213 to replace the first sentence with the following:

"Proposed amendments to the Constitution may originate from the General Conference or one of its legislative committees, or may be submitted by an annual conference session or an annual conference delegation.";

that this amendment be effective immediately upon passage;

and that we request the Constitution, Connectional Organization, and Finance Legislative Committee consider ¶ 213 and return with a proposal for a permanent list of potential origins for constitutional amendments to replace this amendment.

Such an amendment is permitted from the floor of the plenary session under Par. 213, and it would only need a majority vote to be adopted. It could take effect immediately to allow consideration of the petitions currently in the Petitions Report. It would also allow the legislative committee to take time to consider for the future who should be allowed to submit proposed constitutional amendments. Of course, the plenary session can decide whether to adopt the proposed amendment.

We believe it is important for the delegates to be aware of this situation and what is proposed to rectify it. That is why we are publishing this proposed amendment now in anticipation of it being put forward on the first day of the General Conference.

Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, General Conference Secretary

Rev. Lamar Oliver, Petitions Secretary, Assistant General Conference Secretary

Area Committees Complete Nominee Rankings for 2026 Episcopal Elections

Thu, 30 Jul 2026 19:12:21 GMT

The Global Episcopacy Committee announces the completion of the work of the eight Area Committees on Episcopacy, which have interviewed and ranked nominees seeking election or re-election as bishops of the Global Methodist Church.

This interview and ranking process is part of the new episcopal election procedure approved by the convening General Conference in Costa Rica in 2024. When delegates gather in Johannesburg for General Conference 2026, these rankings will help guide the election of one bishop for each of the church's eight episcopal areas.

These rankings provide delegates with the prayerful discernment of the Area Committees on Episcopacy while preserving the authority of the General Conference to elect bishops who will serve as general superintendents of the whole church.

The eight episcopal areas are international groupings of annual conferences formed on May 30 by representatives elected from each conference.

After the areas were established, each Area Committee on Episcopacy, consisting of one clergy and one lay representative from every annual conference in the area, organized, interviewed episcopal nominees, and prayerfully developed a ranked list of candidates. Each committee conducted its work independently as it sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the discernment process.

The results of that discernment are as follows:

AREA ONE
Tanzania, Covenant Philippines, India, Mega Manila, Philippines, Panama, Mississippi-Western Tennessee, Trinity

Luther Oconer
Paul Lawler
Carolyn Moore
Jerry P. Kulah
John Pena Auta

AREA TWO
Bulgaria, Mexico, MidTexas, Northeast, Afrika Mashariki, Korean-American

Leah Gregory
Mark Webb
Luther Oconer
Jonathan Lee
Scott Pattison

AREA THREE
Central Nigeria, South Carolina, Peru, Upper Midwest, Florida, South Africa

Mark Webb
Carolyn Moore
Eduard Khegay
John Pena Auta
Jerry P. Kulah

AREA FOUR
North Alabama, Thailand, MidSouth, West Plains, Western Pacific, Northeast Nigeria

Lyndol Loyd
Brian Ebel
Mark Webb
Carolyn Moore
Gabriella Kopas

AREA FIVE
Ethiopia Nazrawiyan, Great Lakes, Virginia, Southern Nigeria, Oasis, Grain Coast

Mark Webb
Scott Pattison
Jerry P. Kulah
Carolyn Moore
John Pena Auta

AREA SIX
Central African Republic, Central Russia, East Russia-Central Asia, Northwest Russia-Belarus, South Russia, Democratic Republic of Congo

Eduard Khegay
John Pena Auta
Jerry P. Kulah
Luther Oconer
Mark Webb

AREA SEVEN
Venezuela, South Georgia, North Georgia, Central Europe, Zambia, Northern Nigeria, Alabama Emerald Coast

Paul Lawler
Heather Sims
John Pena Auta
Tom Mabry
Luther Oconer

AREA EIGHT
Allegheny West, North Carolina, Uganda, Kenya, Malawi, Zimbabwe, Heartland

Mark Webb
Carolyn Moore
Jerry P. Kulah
Scott Pattison
Brian Ebel

Profiles of all episcopal nominees are available on the Beauty of Holiness 2026 website. Nominees who appear on one or more Area Committee rankings will also be featured in an upcoming video series.

Nominees who were not ranked by an Area Committee remain fully eligible for election and may still receive votes from General Conference delegates.

Chris Ritter, chair of the Global Episcopacy Committee, commented:

"The members of our Area Committees on Episcopacy approached this responsibility with remarkable seriousness and humility. They devoted themselves to prayer, listened carefully to one another, and sought the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the process. While every committee reached its own conclusions, I have great confidence that each faithfully discerned the nominees they believe are best suited to serve both their episcopal area and the entire Global Methodist Church."

STATEMENT OF GUIDANCE BY THE GEC

Because the same candidate was ranked first by more than one Area Committee on Episcopacy, the Book of Doctrines and Discipline provides:

"If the same candidate is the top choice of more than one Area Committee on Episcopacy, the Global Episcopacy Committee may issue a statement of guidance to General Conference delegates prior to the balloting process." (¶604.4)

Unanimous Statement of Guidance

After prayerful conversation with Bishop Mark Webb and the officers of the three Area Committees on Episcopacy that ranked him as their first choice, the Global Episcopacy Committee believes Bishop Mark Webb would best serve Area Three as its assigned bishop. The Global Episcopacy Committee offers this unanimous guidance to the delegates of General Conference as they prayerfully elect and assign bishops. We ask the entire church to join us in praying for wisdom, unity, and the guidance of the Holy Spirit throughout the election process.

NEXT STEPS

When delegates assemble in Johannesburg, a qualification ballot will first be held for interim bishops seeking re-election. Under rules adopted by General Conference 2024, Bishops Gregory, Moore, and Pena Auta must receive at least 75 percent support to be included on the primary election ballots. Delegates may vote to qualify any, all, or none of these bishops.

Bishops Webb and Khegay were not elected as interim bishops and therefore are not subject to the qualification ballot.

Once the regular election begins, delegates will vote separately for each episcopal area. A delegate may not vote for the same candidate in more than one episcopal area on the same ballot. Election requires at least 60 percent of the votes cast. Results will be announced following voting for all open areas, with additional rounds conducted as necessary until every episcopal area has been assigned a bishop.

Although bishops are elected and assigned to particular episcopal areas, each serves as a general superintendent of the entire Global Methodist Church.

The Global Episcopacy Committee invites the entire church to continue praying for the delegates, episcopal nominees, bishops, and all who will participate in the 2026 General Conference.

Global Methodist Church Hosts Historic Plenary Gathering

Tue, 02 Jun 2026 14:09:08 GMT

The Global Methodist Church held the first ever plenary gathering of annual conference representatives to finalize the episcopal areas for 2026-2032 on May 30.

“We have, as a reform movement, restored the election of bishops to the General Conference, which is where it belongs,” said Rev. Chris Ritter, Chair of the Global Episcopacy Committee. “This meeting is designed to happen every six years so that we can take a fresh look at the configuration of our conferences and episcopal areas.”

In the Global Methodist Church, bishops act as general superintendents of the entire church and are elected at General Conference. Approved at General Conference 2024, the election processes are intended to ensure that bishops are both effective global leaders and strong missional fits for the conferences they will most directly serve.

Prior to the plenary gathering, annual conferences submitted lists ranking up to ten other conferences as their preferred choices for sharing a bishop. The Global Episcopacy Committee received 47 lists from the 51 conferences. Four conferences did not turn in ranked lists.

Using these ranked preferences and a weighted matrix, the committee developed proposed episcopal areas–groups of conferences overseen by a bishop. The episcopal areas reflect the global nature of the denomination and are made up of annual conferences from different parts of the world. The bishops do not have jurisdiction over a specific area but instead lead in various countries. To this end, no one episcopal area has more than four conferences from the same continent.

“Episcopal areas are established ahead of General Conference so that the Area Committees on Episcopacy can interview, evaluate, and rank episcopal candidates. This allows for the kind of thorough discernment and vetting often associated with an executive search process,” Ritter shared.

Bishop Jones shared that the role of the bishop “calls for incredible travel, building relationships and keeping a focus on being a movement that is nimble and able to respond well in lots of different situations.”

As directed in paragraph 604 of the “Book of Doctrines and Discipline,” this historic meeting brought together one laity and one clergy member from each annual conference. The group of representatives voted to approve eight episcopal areas across the globe.

The meeting was held on KUDO, a web conferencing platform that allows for live translations and captions, enabling our global connection to collaborate in different languages, nations and time zones.

Following the plenary gathering, the representatives met as area committees on episcopacy to begin their work to review episcopal nominees’ profiles, complete interviews and rank their top five preferred nominees ahead of General Conference.

“I pray for each member of the area episcopacy committees,” Bishop Jones prayed over the group, “that they might do their work faithfully, and they might make the right choices for the people who can lead our church going forward.”

View the approved episcopal areas at beautyofholiness2026.org .

Official List of Episcopal Nominees Announced for General Conference 2026

Fri, 15 May 2026 21:18:07 GMT

With the nomination period now closed, the Global Methodist Church releases the official list of episcopal nominees for the 2026 General Conference. As of May 15, 2026, 24 individuals have accepted nomination, including five current active bishops and 19 additional nominees brought forward by Annual Conference delegations.

This official list reflects the global nature of the Church, representing nominations submitted through the established process by delegates across the connection. Its release is intended to support a season of prayerful discernment for Area Committees on Episcopacy (ACE) and delegates, as we call on the entire Church to seek God’s wisdom throughout this process.

The next step will take place during the ACE plenary session on May 30, 2026, when the proposed episcopal areas will be presented for consideration. As a plenary session of designated representatives, this is not a public meeting, but a focused working session for those formally assigned to this responsibility.

As previously announced, eight full-time bishops will be elected and consecrated at General Conference 2026, taking place August 30 through September 5, 2026, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Those elected will serve six-year terms beginning November 5, 2026.

Global Methodist bishops are traveling, apostolic leaders set apart for a ministry of visionary servant leadership, general oversight, and supervision in support of the church’s mission. They lead the temporal and spiritual life of the church, defend the faith, and deploy the clergy. According to the Book of Doctrines and Discipline, “Nominees for the episcopacy should have a strong record of effectiveness in leading the church in evangelism, discipleship, and mission.”

We offer this information with gratitude for those who have said yes to being considered and with prayerful anticipation for how the Lord will guide the Church through this discernment process.

OFFICIAL LIST OF NOMINEES:

Bishop Leah Gregory
Bishop Eduard Khegay
Bishop Carolyn Moore
Bishop John Pena Auta
Bishop Mark Webb
Andy Postell
Brian Ebel
Baziel Y. Yoila
Danjuma Juji
Forbes Matonga
Gabriella Kopas
Heather L. Sims
Isaac Salgado
Jerry Kulah
Jonathan Lee
Jordan McFall
Lathem Postell
Leo Tae Youl Park
Luther Oconer
Lyndol Loyd
Paul Lawler
Peter J. Bellini (Pete)
Scott Pattison
Tom Mabry

To learn more about each nominee, including the Annual Conferences by which they were nominated and to read their bios, visit the Episcopal Nominee page on the General Conference website at beautyofholiness2026.org . This page will continue to be updated as additional materials are submitted and finalized.

A Covenant of Unity Among Nominees

In a spirit of humility, prayer, and shared commitment to the unity of the Church, the nominees have also collectively developed a covenant that is being shared with the General Church as part of this discernment process.

Grounded in John 17:20–24, the covenant reflects a shared desire that the episcopal process would be marked by holiness, unity, integrity, and love for one another as brothers and sisters in Christ. The covenant serves as a reminder that this discernment process is not about personal advancement, but about faithfully seeking the Lord’s will for the future leadership of the Global Methodist Church.

The full covenant can be viewed here .

Updates and Honoring Bishops

Following the release of the preliminary nominee list, several updates are worth noting. Bishop Kimba K. Evariste announced his decision not to seek re-election. Mbingeleli Diko of South Africa, who was included in the preliminary announcement, has since declined the nomination. Additionally, Peter J. Bellini (Pete) was added as a nominee from the West Plains Conference.

Bishop Kimba K. Evariste will be honored for his faithful service alongside Bishops Scott Jones, Jeff Greenway, and Kenneth Levingston, who are also not seeking re-election. The Church looks forward to recognizing the impact and legacy of these leaders at General Conference 2026.

A Season of Prayerful Discernment

As the Global Methodist Church enters this important season of discernment, we invite our global connection to join in prayer for all nominees and for the work ahead. We trust that the Lord will faithfully guide this process as we seek leaders who will help carry forward the mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ and spreading scriptural holiness across the globe.

Connectional Council Announces Election of General Conference Administrative Committees

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:08:04 GMT

There are five administrative committees that shepherd the work of the General Conference, where delegates have a say in how the conference functions. These are: Agenda (in what order will the business of the conference be dealt with), Credentials (who is credentialed as a delegate), Journal (approves the accuracy of the minutes of the conference and advises the secretary on compiling the new Book of Doctrines and Discipline ), Nominations (who is recommended to be elected to the general church commissions, councils, and committees), and Reference (what petitions are valid and what legislative committee should deal with each petition).

These 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.

ADMINISTRATIVE COMMITTEE MEMBERS

2026 GENERAL CONFERENCE

Elected: March 23, 2026

Agenda Committee

Lay Members:

Mary Blagojevich – Western States

Norma Morrison – Upper Midwest

Walter Oduke – Kenya

James Pollitt – Allegheny West

Clergy Members:

Jill Jackson-Sears – Mid-Texas

John Beyers – North Georgia

Kora Mujinga – Democratic Republic of Congo

Bulelani Nontshakaza – South Africa

Credentials Committee

Lay Members:

Therese Bidiaku Pangi – Democratic Republic of Congo

Elizabeth Chancey – Mid-South

Martha Thompson – South Carolina

Luvo Thwethwa – South Africa

Lily Maijamaa – Northern Nigeria (non-voting)

Clergy Members:

Jason Burnham – Trinity

Joy Griffin – North Georgia

Upendo Likondi – Tanzania

Wilton Odongo – Kenya

David Almanza – Mexico (non-voting)

Journal Committee

Christopher Gadlage – Great Lakes (clergy)

Fidelis Samwel – Kenya (lay)

Chappell Temple – Trinity (clergy)

John Kalambo – Zambia (clergy, non-voting)

Ganizani Nkhambule – Malawi (lay, non-voting)

Nominations Committee

Lay Members:

Holly Joy – Heartland

Tamyra Nies – Allegheny West

Dennis Rader – Northeast

Debbie Smalley – Alabama Emerald Coast

Sheela Shankar – India (non-voting)

Clergy Members:

Mbingeleli Diko – South Africa

Jessica LaGrone – Trinity

Jonathan Lee – Upper Midwest

Henriette Okele – Democratic Republic of Congo

Samson Muzengeza – Zimbabwe (non-voting)

Reference Committee

Lay Members:

Bill Brown – Heartland

James Allred – North Georgia

Jana Fox – Mid-Texas

Christian Mwite Mwango – Democratic Republic of Congo

Stephen Gambo – Central Nigeria (non-voting)

Clergy Members:

John Howard – North Carolina

Rosette Ngoy Kalumba – Democratic Republic of Congo

Greg Stover – Allegheny West

Bonface Wanyama – Kenya

Hen Su Andrei Kim – Northwest Russia-Bel

Global Methodist Church Announces Preliminary List of Episcopal Nominees for General Conference 2026

Thu, 26 Mar 2026 18:07:49 GMT

As of March 15, 2026, 28 individuals have been received as episcopal nominees by the Global Episcopacy Committee (GEC) of the Global Methodist Church.

This list reflects nominees submitted by Annual Conference delegations by the preferred deadline. Additional nominees may continue to be submitted by Annual Conferences through May 15, 2026. In the spirit of transparency and to support the work of delegations, the Global Methodist Church is releasing this preliminary list to allow delegations to begin their work of prayerful discernment in advance of the Area Committees on Episcopacy (AEC) assignment plenary session scheduled for May 31, 2026.

As previously announced, eight full-time bishops will be elected and consecrated at General Conference 2026, taking place August 30 through September 6, 2026, in Johannesburg, South Africa. Those elected will serve six-year terms beginning November 5, 2026.

Global Methodist bishops are traveling, apostolic leaders set apart for a ministry of visionary servant leadership, general oversight, and supervision in support of the church’s mission. They lead the temporal and spiritual life of the church, defend the faith, and deploy the clergy. According to the Book of Doctrines and Discipline , “Nominees for the episcopacy should have a strong record of effectiveness in leading the church in evangelism, discipleship, and mission.”

We offer this information with gratitude for those who have said yes to being considered and with prayerful anticipation for how the Lord will guide the Church through this discernment.

Preliminary List of Episcopal Nominees

Six of the current active bishops have offered themselves for re-election:

Bishop Leah Gregory

Bishop Eduard Khegay

Bishop Kimba K. Evariste

Bishop Carolyn Moore

Bishop John Pena Auta

Bishop Mark Webb

In addition to those continuing in consideration, the following nominees have been put forward by Annual Conference delegations from across the connection to date:

Rev. Lucien Dan Dockpa Ngama (Central African Republic) has declined nomination by his home Annual Conference. Greg West (Virginia Annual Conference), who was nominated by the Central African Republic Annual Conference, has declined. Luciano Pereira da Silva (Panama Conference) has also declined nomination by his home Annual Conference.

Ongoing Nominee Information and Profiles

Those named as nominees to date have been invited to submit their profile materials. Relevant information from these submissions will be made available to members of the Area Committees on Episcopacy, General Conference delegates, and the public.

The Global Episcopacy Committee is actively working in partnership with the Communications Team to provide consistent, accessible information for each nominee, including biographies, ministry background, and other relevant materials to support Area Committees on Episcopacy and delegations in their discernment.

An Episcopal Nominee page is currently under development on the General Conference website at beautyofholiness2026.org . This page will include the most up-to-date list of nominees and will be regularly updated as additional nominations are received and as nominee materials are submitted and finalized.

We are grateful for the cooperation of nominees and ask for patience as information is gathered from across the global connection and prepared for publication.

Next Steps

As outlined in the original timeline, additional nominees may be received through May 15 and will be added to the public list as they are confirmed. At this time, the Global Episcopacy Committee does not anticipate a significant number of additional nominations.

The Global Episcopacy Committee has issued a statement of expectations for the election process that can be found on the Episcopal Elections page of the General Conference website and plans to host an online orientation for nominees.

The GEC will incorporate feedback from annual conference delegations to propose a draft map of eight Episcopal Areas for approval on May 30. Area Committees on Episcopacy will be formed at that time and will begin the process of interviewing and discerning nominees.

Each committee will include one clergy and one lay delegate from each participating Annual Conference. A ranking of the top five nominees from each Area Committee will be shared with General Conference delegates in late July. Those nominees will be invited to participate in a video interview process.

Elections will take place during General Conference 2026, with bishops elected to specific Episcopal Areas based on the discernment of the committees and the action of the body.

Honoring Concluding Bishops

Bishops Scott Jones, Jeff Greenway, and Kenneth Levingston, who are not seeking re-election, will be among those honored for their faithful service at General Conference 2026. The title of Bishop Emeritus is conferred upon those who have honorably completed active episcopal service.

Media Inquiries

All media inquiries may be directed to communications@globalmethodist.org .

To ensure alignment with the shared discernment process and to honor the preferences of the nominee pool, all requests will be coordinated through the Communications team and relayed to nominees accordingly.

Sample Legislation: Defining Area Committees on Episcopacy in BDD

Tue, 13 Jan 2026 19:54:20 GMT

To view in your preferred language, select your language from the dropdown menu at the bottom of the page.

November 22, 2025

The 2024 Book of Doctrines and Discipline of the Global Methodist Church makes reference to area committees on episcopacy. The Global Episcopacy Committee has drafted the following new paragraph that better defines these committees and their important work.

While not official until General Conference acts, the GEC shares this information to assist each delegation as they nominate one lay and one clergy person to a future area committee on episcopacy.

DRAFTED NEW PARAGRAPH

¶6XX. AREA COMMITTEES ON EPISCOPACY. There shall be an area committee on episcopacy for each episcopal area in the Global Methodist Church.

Purpose. The area committee on episcopacy shall meet with the bishop assigned to the episcopal area to foster healthy and effective relationships in service to the mission of the Global Methodist Church. Area committees on episcopacy shall participate in the election of bishops as described in ¶604.
Composition. An area committee on episcopacy shall be constituted as follows:
An area committee on episcopacy shall be comprised of one lay and one clergy member from each annual conference in the episcopal area. Each General Conference delegation shall elect one lay and one clergy member from the annual conference to its area committee on episcopacy as described in ¶604.1b. Those elected need not be members of the delegation. Those who have accepted a nomination to the episcopacy are not eligible to serve on an area committee on episcopacy.
An ex officio member shall be supplied to each area committee on episcopacy from the Global Episcopacy Committee. This ex officio member shall have voice but not vote on the area committee on episcopacy. The assignment of this ex officio member shall alternate every six-year term between a lay and a clergy member. The purpose of this ex officio member is to provide linkage between the work of the area committee and the Global Episcopacy Committee.
An area committee on episcopacy shall elect its own officers.
Term. The term of a member of an area committee on episcopacy shall begin at the plenary gathering held within ninety days of the opening of a regularly scheduled General Conference (¶604.3). The term shall conclude at the opening of the plenary gathering before the subsequent regularly scheduled General Conference. No person may serve on an area committee on episcopacy more than two consecutive six-year terms. The Global Episcopacy Committee shall instruct General Conference delegations on the dates and deadlines associated with electing representatives to an area committee on episcopacy.
Duties. An area committee on episcopacy has the following responsibilities:

a. To foster productive and positive relationships between the assigned bishop and the annual conferences they serve.

b. To meet at least quarterly and prayerfully provide consultation to their assigned bishop.

c. To participate in the episcopal election process as described in ¶604.

d. To participate annually in the performance review of the bishop as directed by the Global Episcopacy Committee.

e. If a vacancy in the office of bishop occurs, the applicable area committee on episcopacy shall be consulted by the Global Episcopacy Committee on a plan for episcopal coverage. Bishops emeriti may be utilized, or the conferences in the area may be served by other bishops in a plan approved by the Global Episcopacy Committee. In cases where separate conferences in an episcopal area may be temporarily assigned different bishops, the Global Episcopacy Committee may grant area committee members from affected conferences voice and/or vote in the area episcopacy committee related to a temporarily assigned bishop, provided that no area committee member shall concurrently hold privilege of vote in more than one area episcopacy committee.

5. Vacancies. Each annual conference is to maintain one lay and one clergy member on its area committee on episcopacy. If a vacancy occurs, the most recently elected General Conference delegation of the conference shall convene to fill the vacancy.

Grace & Peace,
Rev. Dr. Chris Ritter
Chairperson
Global Episcopacy Committee

globalepiscopacycomm@globalmethodist.org

Update on the Plenary Gathering of Area Committees on Episcopacy

Thu, 11 Dec 2025 20:04:19 GMT

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December 08, 2025

Dear General Conference Delegations,

As chair of the Global Episcopacy Committee (GEC), I am pleased to formally call the 2026 plenary gathering of those selected by their delegations to serve on our future Area Committees on Episcopacy. The purpose of this gathering will be to approve the composition of our 2026–2032 episcopal areas, as directed by BDD ¶604.3. The plenary gathering will be held online on Saturday, May 30, 2026, at 8:00 a.m. Central Daylight Time (UTC-5).

The lay member and clergy member you select will meet with their counterparts from other GMC conferences around the world to consider a report from the GEC on the groupings of annual conferences that will share a bishop. Your GEC and the Assembly of Bishops will participate in the plenary gathering with voice but without vote.

The exact number of episcopal areas will be announced in early 2026. The GEC’s proposal for the episcopal areas will be based on the data submitted by each delegation. It is our intention to publish our recommendations and rationale prior to the plenary gathering. Approval will require a simple majority vote.

Once the map of episcopal areas is approved on May 30, each area committee will enter a virtual breakout room. Members of the GEC will facilitate the election of officers. Each area committee will then begin its work: identifying leadership needs and deciding which episcopal nominees to interview. A full profile of each nominee—including current bishops who are making themselves available for re-election—will be provided. Area Committees will also have access to confidential files made available by the GEC.

Each area committee is asked to produce a ranked list of its top five choices by July 22, 2026 . These lists will be shared with the delegates of the General Conference. Nominees who appear on a ranked list may be invited to participate in video interviews. Once gathered in Johannesburg, delegates will elect a bishop to each specific episcopal area. Because this process will repeat every six years, there will be future opportunities to reconsider both the shape of episcopal areas and those who serve them.

As you can see, the task entrusted to the Area Committees on Episcopacy is significant. A draft document further defining the responsibilities of these committees is available on the election page of The Beauty of Holiness website . Please keep in mind the following guidelines:

A person nominated to be bishop is not eligible to serve on an area committee on episcopacy.
While the persons you select must be members of your annual conference, they do not have to be members of your delegation.
Please select persons who have reliable internet access and experience with online meetings. This is essential for both the plenary gathering and the candidate interviews.
Translation services are being secured for the plenary gathering. However, the ability to communicate across languages will be helpful throughout the process. Those who do not speak the language used by their area committee may need to secure a personal translator or translation service.
Those elected to your area committee should be prepared to participate in hours of interviews in June and July of 2026. The time commitment will be significant.

Delegations are reminded to submit the following items by March 15, 2026:

The names of one lay person and one clergy person selected to serve on your future area committee on episcopacy (please include their e-mail address, clergy/laity status, and languages they speak);
A ranked list of ten annual conferences with whom your delegation believes it should be grouped in a shared episcopal area (rationale statements are welcome);
Up to one episcopal nominee from your annual conference and up to one episcopal nominee from outside your conference.

Thank you for your faithful work in building the Global Methodist Church and spreading scriptural holiness across the globe. Please join me in praying that the Holy Spirit will guide and bless the selection process for our first elected slate of full-time bishops.

Grace & Peace,
Rev. Dr. Chris Ritter
Chairperson
Global Episcopacy Committee

globalepiscopacycomm@globalmethodist.org

FRENCH

Mise à jour sur la réunion plénière des Comités de Zone sur l'Épiscopat

08 décembre 2025

Chères Délégations de la Conférence Générale,

En tant que Président du Comité de l'Épiscopat Global (GEC), j'ai le plaisir de convoquer officiellement la réunion plénière de 2026 des personnes sélectionnées par leurs délégations pour siéger dans nos futurs Comités de Zone sur l'Épiscopat. L'objectif de cette réunion est d'approuver la composition de nos zones épiscopales 2026-2032, conformément aux directives du LDD ¶604.3. La réunion plénière se tiendra en ligne le samedi 30 mai 2026, à 8h00. Heure avancée du Centre (UTC-5).

Le membre laïc et le membre du clergé que vous sélectionnerez rencontreront leurs homologues des autres conférences GMC du monde entier pour examiner un rapport du GEC sur les regroupements de conférences annuelles qui partageront un évêque. Votre GEC et l'Assemblée des Évêques participeront à la réunion plénière avec voix mais sans droit de vote.

Le nombre exact de régions épiscopales sera annoncé au début de l’année 2026. La proposition du CEG pour les régions épiscopales sera basée sur les données soumises par chaque délégation. Nous avons l'intention de publier nos recommandations et leur justification avant la réunion plénière. L’approbation nécessitera un vote à la majorité simple.

Une fois la carte des régions épiscopales approuvée le 30 mai, chaque comité régional rejoindra une salle virtuelle distincte. Les membres du CEG faciliteront l’élection des officiants. Chaque comité régional commencera ensuite ses travaux : identifier les besoins en leadership et décider quels candidats épiscopaux seront interviewés. Un profil complet de chaque candidat — y compris des évêques actuels qui se présentent à leur réélection — sera fourni. Les Comités Régionaux auront également accès à des dossiers confidentiels mis à disposition par le CEG.

Chaque comité de zone est prié de produire une liste classée de ses cinq meilleurs choix d'ici le 22 juillet 2026. Ces listes seront partagées avec les délégués de la Conférence Générale. Les candidats figurant sur une liste classée pourront être invités à participer à des entretiens vidéo. Une fois réunis à Johannesburg, les délégués éliront un évêque pour chaque région épiscopale spécifique. Puisque ce processus sera répété tous les six ans, il y aura à l’avenir d’autres occasions de reconsidérer à la fois la forme des régions épiscopales et ceux qui les servent.

Comme vous pouvez le constater, la tâche confiée aux Comités régionaux de l’Épiscopat est importante. Un document préliminaire définissant plus précisément les responsabilités de ces comités est disponible sur la page d’élection du site La Beauté de la Sainteté (The Beauty of Holliness). Veuillez garder à l’esprit les lignes directrices suivantes :

Une personne proposée pour être évêque n’est pas éligible pour servir dans un comité régional de l’épiscopat.
Bien que les personnes sélectionnées doivent être membres de votre conférence annuelle, elles ne sont pasobligatoirement membres de votre délégation.
Veuillez sélectionner des personnes disposant d’un accès Internet fiable et d’une expérience des réunions en ligne. Ceci est essentiel tant pour la réunion plénière que pour les entretiens avec les candidats.
Des services de traduction sont en cours de sécurisation pour la réunion plénière. Cependant, la capacité à communiquer entre différentes langues sera utile tout au long du processus. Ceux qui ne maîtrisent pas la langue utilisée par leur comité régional pourraient devoir se doter d’un traducteur personnel ou d’un service de traduction.
Ceux qui sont élus dans votre comité régional devront être prêts à participer à plusieurs heures d’entretiens en juin et juillet 2026. L'engagement de temps sera significatif.

Il est rappelé aux délégations de soumettre les éléments suivants avant le 15 mars 2026 :

Les noms d'un laïc et d'un membre du clergé sélectionnés pour siéger à votre futur comité régional sur l'épiscopat (veuillez inclure leur adresse électronique, leur statut de membre du clergé/laïc et les langues qu'ils parlent) ;
Une liste classée de dix conférences annuelles avec lesquelles votre délégation souhaite être regroupée dans une région épiscopale commune (les explications sont bienvenues) ;
Jusqu'à un candidat épiscopal de votre conférence annuelle et jusqu'à un candidat épiscopal venant de l'extérieur de votre conférence.

Merci pour votre travail fidèle dans la construction de l'Église Méthodiste Globale et la propagation de la sainteté scripturaire à travers le globe. Je vous invite à prier avec moi pour que le Saint-Esprit dirige et bénisse le processus de sélection de notre première liste d’évêques élus à plein temps.

Grâce & Paix,
Rév. Dr Chris Ritter
Président
Comité Épiscopal Global

globalepiscopacycomm@globalmethodist.org

KOREAN

감독권 지역위원회 전체 회의 업데이트 안내

2025년 12월 8일

총회 대의원 여러분께,

글로벌 감독위원회(GEC) 위원장으로서, 각 대표단에 의해 선출되어 향후 지역 감독위원회 에서 봉사하게 될 분들을 대상으로 하는 2026년 전체회의 를 공식적으로 소집하게 되어 기쁘게 생각합니다. 이 모임의 목적은 장정 ¶604.3에 따라 2026–2032년 감독 지역 구성을 승인하는 것입니다. 온라인에서 2026년 5월 30일 토요일 오전 8시에 전체모임이 개최됩니다. 중부 표준 시간(UTC-5) 기준입니다.

귀 연회에서 선출하실 평신도 대표 1인과 목회자 대표 1인은 전 세계의 다른 글로벌 감리교회 연회 대표들과 함께 모여, 한 명의 감독을 공동으로 섬기게 될 연회들의 구성에 관한 글로벌 감독위원회의 보고서를 검토하고 숙의하게 될 것입니다. 귀하의 글로벌 감독위원회와 감독회는 전체회의에서 발언권은 있으나 표결권은 없이 참여하게 될 것입니다.

감독 지역의 정확한 수는 2026년 초에 발표될 예정입니다. 감독 지역에 대한 글로벌 감독위원회의 제안서는 각 대표단이 제출한 자료를 바탕으로 작성됩니다. 전체 회의에 앞서 저희의 권장 사항과 원칙을 발표할 예정입니다. 승인은 단순 다수결 투표로 이루어집니다.

5월 30일 감독 지역 지도가 승인되면, 각 지역 위원회는 가상 분과실(a virtual breakout room)에 들어가게 됩니다. 글로벌 감독위원회(GEC)의 회원들은 임원 선출을 돕게 됩니다. 그런 다음 각 지역 위원회는 리더십에 필요한 사항을 파악하고 인터뷰할 감독 후보를 결정하는 작업을 시작합니다. 각 후보자에 대한 전체 프로필—재선에 출마하는 현직 감독을 포함하여—이 제공될 것입니다. 또한 지역 감독위원회(Area Committees) 는 글로벌 감독위원회(GEC)가 제공하는 기밀 자료(confidential files) 에 접근할 수 있게 될 것입니다.

각 지역 위원회는 2026년 7월 22일까지 상위 5명의 순위 목록을 제출해 주시기 바랍니다. 이 목록들은 총회 대의원들과 공유됩니다. 순위 목록에 있는 후보자들은 화상 면접에 초대될 수 있습니다. 대의원들이 요하네스버그에 모이면, 각 특정 감독 지역의 감독을 선출하게 됩니다. 이 과정은 6년마다 반복되므로 감독 지역의 구성과 그곳에서 섬길 이들을 다시 고려할 수 있는 기회가 앞으로도 계속 있을 것입니다.

알고 계시는 것처럼, 감독권 지역위원회에 맡겨진 임무는 매우 중요합니다. 이 위원회들의 책임을 더 명확히 하는 초안 문서는 The Beauty of Holiness 웹사이트의 선거 페이지에서 확인하실 수 있습니다. 다음의 가이드라인을 반드시 기억해 주시기 바랍니다:

감독 후보로 지명된 사람은 지역 감독위원회에서 봉사할 자격이 없습니다.
선출하시는 분은 이는 반드시 귀 연회의 회원이어야 하지만, 귀 연회의 대의원일 필요는 없습니다.
안정적인 인터넷 접속 환경을 갖추고 온라인 회의 경험이 있는 분들을 선출해 주시기 바랍니다. 이는 전체모임과 후보자 면접 모두에 매우 중요합니다.
전체모임에서 통역 서비스가 제공될 예정입니다. 다만, 여러 언어로 의사소통할 수 있는 능력은 전 과정에 큰 도움이 될 것입니다. 자신이 속한 지역 감독위원회에서 사용되는 언어를 구사하지 못하는 경우, 개인 통역사나 통역 서비스를 직접 확보해야 할 수도 있습니다.
귀하의 지역 위원회에 선출된 이들은 2026년 6월과 7월에 진행되는 여러 시간의 면접에 참여할 준비가 되어 있어야 합니다. 이 과정에는 상당한 시간적 헌신이 요구될 것입니다.

각 대표단은 2026년 3월 15일까지 다음 사항들을 꼭 제출해 주시기 바랍니다:

향후 지역 감독위원회(Area Committee on Episcopacy) 에서 봉사하도록 선출된 평신도 1인과 목회자 1인의 성명 (각각의 이메일 주소, 평신도/목회자 구분, 구사 가능한 언어를 함께 기재해 주시기 바랍니다).
공동 감독 구역(shared episcopal area) 으로 함께 묶이는 것이 바람직하다고 귀 대표단이 판단하는 연회 10곳을 우선순위에 따라 정리한 목록 (그에 대한 이유 근거를 함께 제출하셔도 됩니다).
귀 연회 내부에서 추천하는 감독 후보자 최대 1인과, 귀 연회 외부에서 추천하는 감독 후보자 최대 1인.

글로벌 감리교회를 세우고 전 세계에 성경적 거룩함을 확산시키는 일에 신실하게 봉사해 주셔서 감사합니다. 우리의 첫 전임 감독 선출 명단을 위한 이 선출 과정 가운데 성령께서 인도하시고 복 주시도록, 함께 기도해 주시기를 부탁드립니다.

은혜와 평화가 함께 하시길 바랍니다.
크리스 리터 목사 박사글로벌 감독위원회
의장

globalepiscopacycomm@globalmethodist.org

PORTUGUESE

Atualização sobre a Reunião Plenária dos Comités de Área do Episcopado

08 de dezembro de 2025.

Prezadas Delegações da Conferência Geral,

Como Presidente do Comité do Episcopado Global (CEG), tenho a satisfação de convocar formalmente a reunião plenária de 2026 daqueles que foram selecionados por suas delegações para servirem em nossos futuros Comités de Área do Episcopado. O objetivo desta reunião será aprovar a composição das nossas áreas episcopais de 2026-2032, conforme orientado pelo LDD ¶604.3. A reunião plenária será realizada online, sábado, 30 de maio de 2026, às 8h00. Horário de Verão Central (UTC-5).

O membro leigo e o membro do clero que forem selecionados se reunirão com seus homólogos de outras conferências da IMG ao redor do mundo para considerar um relatório do CEG sobre os agrupamentos de conferências anuais que compartilharão um bispo. Seu CEG e a Assembleia de Bispos participarão da reunião plenária com direito à voz, mas sem voto.

O número exato de áreas episcopais será anunciado no início de 2026. A proposta do CEG para as áreas episcopais será baseada nos dados submetidos por cada delegação. É nossa intenção publicar nossas recomendações e justificativas antes da reunião plenária. A aprovação requer uma votação por maioria simples.

Após a aprovação do mapa das áreas episcopais no dia 30 de maio, cada comité de área irá para uma sala virtual separada. Os membros do CEG facilitarão a eleição dos dirigentes. Em seguida, cada comité de área iniciará seu trabalho: identificando as necessidades de liderança e decidindo quais indicados episcopais entrevistar. Será fornecido um perfil completo de cada nomeado, incluindo os dos atuais bispos que se disponibilizaram para reeleição. Os Comités de Área também terão acesso a arquivos confidenciais disponibilizados pelo CEG.

Cada comité de área deve produzir uma lista classificada de suas cinco melhores escolhas até 22 de julho de 2026. Essas listas serão compartilhadas com os delegados da Conferência Geral. Os indicados que constarem em uma lista classificada poderão ser convidados a participar de entrevistas em vídeo. Uma vez reunidos em Joanesburgo, os delegados elegerão um bispo para cada área episcopal específica. Como esse processo se repetirá a cada seis anos, haverá oportunidades futuras para reconsiderar tanto a configuração das áreas episcopais quanto as pessoas que as servem.

Como se pode perceber, a missão confiada aos Comités de Área do Episcopado é de grande relevância. Um documento preliminar que detalha ainda mais as responsabilidades desses comités está disponível na página da eleição no site A Beleza da Santidade (The Beauty of Holliness). Por favor, considerem as seguintes diretrizes:

Uma pessoa indicada para ser bispo não é elegível para servir em um comité de área do episcopado.
Embora as pessoas selecionadas devam ser membros da sua conferência anual, elas não precisam ser membros da sua delegação.
Por favor, selecionem pessoas que tenham acesso confiável à internet e experiência com reuniões online. Isso é essencial tanto para a reunião plenária quanto para as entrevistas dos candidatos.
Estão a ser providenciados serviços de tradução para a reunião plenária. No entanto, a capacidade de comunicar em diferentes línguas será útil ao longo de todo o processo. Aqueles que não falam a língua utilizada pelo seu comité de área poderão ter de recorrer a um tradutor pessoal ou a um serviço de tradução.
Os eleitos para o seu comité de área devem estar preparados para participar de várias horas de entrevistas em junho e julho de 2026. O compromisso de tempo será significativo.

Solicita-se às delegações que submetam os seguintes itens até 15 de março de 2026:

Os nomes de uma pessoa leiga e uma pessoa do clero selecionadas para servir em seu futuro comité de área do episcopado (por favor, inclua o endereço de e-mail, a condição de clero ou leigo, e os idiomas que falam);
Uma lista classificada de dez conferências anuais com as quais sua delegação acredita que deva ser agrupada em uma área episcopal compartilhada (declarações de justificativa são bem-vindas);
Até um nomeado episcopal da sua conferência anual e até um nomeado episcopal de fora da sua conferência.

Agradecemos o seu trabalho fiel na construção da Igreja Metodista Global e na divulgação da santidade bíblica em todo o mundo. Convido-os a unir-se a mim em oração para que o Espírito Santo conduza e abençoe o processo de seleção do nosso primeiro quadro de bispos eleitos em tempo integral.

Graça e Paz,
Rev. Dr. Chris Ritter
Presidente
Comité do Episcopado Global

globalepiscopacycomm@globalmethodist.org

SPANISH

Actualización sobre la Reunión Plenaria de los Comités de Episcopado de Áreas

08 de diciembre de 2025

Estimadas Delegaciones a la Conferencia General,

Como presidente del Comité Global de Episcopado (CGE), me complace convocar formalmente a la reunión plenaria de 2026 de quienes han sido seleccionados por sus delegaciones para servir en nuestros futuros Comités de Episcopado de Áreas. El propósito de esta reunión será aprobar la composición de nuestras áreas episcopales 2026–2032, según lo dispuesto por el LDD ¶604.3. La reunión plenaria se llevará a cabo en línea el sábado 30 de mayo de 2026 a las 8:00 a.m. Hora Central de Verano (UTC-5).

El miembro laico y el clérigo que seleccionen, se reunirán con sus contrapartes de otras conferencias de la IMG en todo el mundo, para considerar un informe del CGE sobre los grupos de conferencias anuales que compartirán un obispo. Su CGE y la Asamblea de Obispos participarán en la reunión plenaria con voz pero sin voto.

El número exacto de áreas episcopales se anunciará a principios del 2026. La propuesta del CGE para las Áreas Episcopales se basará en los datos presentados por cada delegación. Nuestra intención es publicar nuestras recomendaciones y explicaciones antes de la reunión plenaria. La aprobación requerirá una votación por mayoría simple.

Una vez que se apruebe el mapa de Áreas Episcopales el 30 de mayo, cada comité de área ingresará a una sala virtual separada. Los miembros del CGE facilitarán la elección de funcionarios. Cada comité de área comenzará entonces su labor: identificar las necesidades de liderazgo y decidir qué candidatos episcopales serán entrevistados. Se proporcionará un perfil completo de cada candidato, incluyendo a los obispos actuales que se postulan para la reelección. Los Comités de Áreas también tendrán acceso a archivos confidenciales puestos a disposición por el CGE.

Se pide a cada comité de área que elabore una lista ordenada con sus cinco principales opciones antes del 22 de julio de 2026. Estas listas serán compartidas con los delegados de la Conferencia General. Los candidatos que aparezcan en una lista ordenada por prioridad podrán ser invitados a participar en entrevistas por video. Una vez reunidos en Johannesburgo, los delegados elegirán un obispo para cada área episcopal específica. Como este proceso se repetirá cada seis años, habrá oportunidades futuras para reconsiderar tanto la configuración de las áreas episcopales como quienes las sirven.

Como pueden ver, la tarea encomendada a los Comités de Episcopado de Áreas es significativa. Un documento preliminar que define más detalladamente las responsabilidades de estos comités, está disponible en la página de elecciones del sitio web La Hermosura de la Santidad (The Beauty of Holliness). Por favor, tengan en cuenta las siguientes directrices:

Una persona nominada para ser obispo no es elegible para servir en un Comité de Episcopado de Área.
Si bien las personas que seleccionen deben ser miembros de su Conferencia Anual, no es necesario que sean miembros de su delegación.
Por favor, seleccionen personas que tengan buen acceso a internet y experiencia en reuniones en línea. Esto es esencial tanto para la reunión plenaria como para las entrevistas con los candidatos.
Se están asegurando servicios de traducción para la reunión plenaria. Sin embargo, la capacidad de comunicarse en varios idiomas será de ayuda durante todo el proceso. Quienes no hablen el idioma utilizado por su comité de área, deben conseguir un traductor personal o un servicio de traducción.
Quienes sean elegidos para su comité de área, deben estar preparados para participar en horas de entrevistas en junio y julio de 2026. El compromiso de tiempo será significativo.

Se recuerda a las delegaciones que deben presentar los siguientes elementos antes del 15 de marzo de 2026:

Los nombres de un laico y un clérigo seleccionados para servir en su futuro Comité de Episcopado de Área (incluya su dirección de correo electrónico, condición de clérigo/laico y los idiomas que hablan);
Una lista ordenada de diez conferencias anuales con las que su delegación considera que debe agruparse en un área episcopal compartida (las explicaciones de las razones son bienvenidas);
No más de un candidato episcopal de su Conferencia Anual y no más de un candidato episcopal de fuera de su conferencia.

Gracias por su trabajo fiel en la construcción de la Iglesia Metodista Global y en la difusión de la santidad bíblica por todo el mundo. Les invito a unirse en oración para que el Espíritu Santo guíe y bendiga el proceso de selección de nuestra primera lista electa de obispos a tiempo completo.

Gracia y Paz,
Rev. Dr. Chris Ritter
Presidente
Comité Global de Episcopado

globalepiscopacycomm@globalmethodist.org

SWAHILI

Sasisho kuhusu Mkutano Mkuu wa Kamati za Eneo za Uaskofu

Disemba 08, 2025

Wapendwa Wawakilishi wa Baraza kuu,

Kama mwenyekiti wa Kamati ya Kiaskofu Duniani (GEC), nina furaha kuitisha rasmi mkutano mkuu wa mwaka 2026 wa wale walioteuliwa na wawakilishi wao kuhudumu katika Kamati zetu za Eneo za Uaskofu zijazo. Lengo la mkutano huu litakuwa kuidhinisha muundo wa maeneo yetu ya uaskofu kwa kipindi cha mwaka 2026–2032, kama ilivyoelekezwa na BDD ¶604.3. Mkutano mkuu utafanyika mtandaoni siku ya Jumamosi, Mei 30, 2026, saa 2:00 asubuhi. Wakati wa Mchana wa Kati (Central Daylight Time [UTC-5]).

Mshirika na mchungaji mtakaowachagua watakutana na wenzao kutoka kwenye kongamano za GMC duniani kote ili kuzingatia ripoti kutoka kwa GEC kuhusu makundi ya kongamano za mwaka zitakazoshiriki askofu. GEC yenu pamoja na Mkutano wa Maaskofu watashiriki kwenye mkutano mkuu wakiwa na haki ya kutoa maoni lakini bila kupiga kura.

Idadi kamili ya maeneo ya uaskofu itatangazwa mwanzoni mwa mwaka 2026. Pendekezo la GEC kuhusu maeneo ya uaskofu litatokana na data iliyowasilishwa na kila mwakilishi. Nia yetu ni kuchapisha mapendekezo yetu na mantiki kabla ya mkutano mkuu. Idhini itahitaji kura ya wengi.

Mara ramani ya maeneo ya uaskofu itakapopitishwa Mei 30, kila kamati ya eneo itaingia kwenye chumba cha mtandaoni cha majadiliano. Washirika wa GEC wataongoza uchaguzi wa maafisa. Kisha kila kamati ya eneo itaanza kazi yake: kubaini mahitaji ya uongozi na kuamua ni wagombea gani wa uaskofu watahojiwa. Maelezo kamili ya kila mgombea — ikiwemo maaskofu wa sasa wanaotaka kugombea tena uchaguzi upya — yatatolewa. Kamati za Eneo pia zitapata fursa ya kuona nyaraka za siri zilizoandaliwa na GEC.

Kila kamati ya eneo inaombwa kuwasilisha orodha iliyopangwa ya chaguzi zao tano bora ifikapo Julai 22, 2026. Orodha hizi zitashirikiwa na wawakilishi wa Baraza kuu. Wagombea wanaoonekana kwenye orodha iliyopangwa wanaweza kualikwa kushiriki kwenye mahojiano ya video. Pindi watakapokusanyika Johannesburg, wawakilishi watachagua askofu kwa kila eneo maalum la uaskofu. Kwa kuwa mchakato huu utarudiwa kila baada ya miaka sita, kutakuwa na nafasi zaidi kuzingatia upya umbo la maeneo ya uaskofu na wanaohudumu.

Kama mnavyoona, jukumu lililoaminiwa Kamati za Mikoa za Uaskofu ni muhimu. Rasimu ya hati inayoelezea zaidi majukumu ya kamati hizi inapatikana kwenye ukurasa wa uchaguzi wa tovuti ya Uzuri wa Utakatifu (The Beauty of Holliness). Tafadhali kumbuka miongozo ifuatayo:

Mtu aliyeteuliwa kuwa askofu hastahili kuhudumu kwenye Kamati ya Uaskofu ya eneo.
Wakati watu unachagua lazima wawe washiriki wa kongamano la mwaka, si lazima wawe washirika wa uwakilishi wako.
Tafadhali chagueni watu ambao wanaweza kuwa na ufikiaji wa mtandao wa kuaminika na uzoefu wa mikutano ya mtandaoni. Hili ni jambo la msingi kwa mkutano mkuu na pia kwa mahojiano ya wagombea.
Huduma za tafsiri zinapatikana kwa ajili ya mkutano mkuu. Hata hivyo, uwezo wa kuwasiliana kwa lugha tofauti utakuwa msaada wakati wa mchakato. Wale ambao hawazungumzi lugha inayotumika kwenye kamati yao ya eneo wanaweza kuhitajika kupata mkalimani au huduma ya tafsiri binafsi.
Wale waliochaguliwa katika kamati ya eneo lenu wanapaswa kuwa tayari kushiriki katika masaa ya mahojiano mwezi Juni na Julai 2026. Ahadi ya muda itakuwa muhimu.

Wawakilishi wanakumbushwa kuwasilisha vitu vifuatavyo kabla ya Machi 15, 2026:

Majina ya mshirika mmoja na mchungaji mmoja walioteuliwa kuhudumu kwenye Kamati yako ya Uaskofu ya eneo lijalo (tafadhali jumuisha anwani yao ya barua pepe, hadhi ya uchungaji/uumini, na lugha wanazozungumza);
Orodha iliyoorodheshwa ya makongamano kumi ya kila mwaka ambayo wawakilishi wako wanaamini inapaswa kuwekwa katika sehemu ya pamoja ya maaskofu (kauli za mantiki zinakaribishwa);
Hadi mgombea mmoja wa uaskofu kutoka kongamano lenu la mwaka na hadi mgombea mmoja wa uaskofu kutoka nje ya kongamano lenu.

Asanteni kwa kazi yenu ya uaminifu katika kujenga Kanisa la Kimethodisti Ulimwenguni na kueneza utakatifu wa kimaandiko duniani kote. Tafadhali ungana nami katika kuomba Roho Mtakatifu iongoze na kubariki mchakato wa wa uteuzi wa awamu ya kwanza ya maaskofu wetu waliochaguliwa na kutumikia muda wote.

Neema & Amani,
Mchungaji Dkt. Chris Ritter
Mwenyekiti
Kamati ya Kiaskofu Duniani

globalepiscopacycomm@globalmethodist.org

General Conference 2026 Registration & Travel Update

Thu, 20 Nov 2025 20:12:43 GMT

General Conference Registration & Travel Update: Everything You Need to Know

We are pleased to share important details regarding registration, travel, lodging, and participant expectations for General Conference 2026 (GC26). Please review this information carefully, as several processes are time-sensitive and designed to help ensure a smooth and well-coordinated experience for all delegates, volunteers, and guests.

Registration

Registration Opens in Phases

To provide individualized support and prevent system overload, GC26 registration will roll out in a series of phases:

Phase 1 — October 31, 2025

Bishops, General Conference Commission, GMC Staff

Phase 2 — November 19, 2025

GCC Sub-Teams, Council of Appeals, Key Assigned Volunteers

(Phase 1 participants may continue registering)

Phase 3 — December 10, 2025

Delegates, Bishop Emeriti, Conference Superintendents, Connectional Council

(Phases 1 & 2 continue)

Phase 4 — January 14, 2026

Volunteers, Exhibitors, Sponsors, Honored Guests

(Phases 1–3 continue)

Phase 5 — February 11, 2026

Open to the public

(Phases 1–4 continue)

Everyone that is a part of one of these groups will receive an email invitation containing a personalized registration link. All participants should use this link to complete the registration form.

All registrants must hold a valid passport or South African Identification Card. A valid passport with an expiration date no earlier than December 31, 2026 is required in order to register or a SA Identification Card that will not expire by the end of 2026. Registrants without a current passport/id card must wait until their new passport/id card is issued before completing registration.

Registration will also allow registrants to add a spouse or guest who plans to attend GC26.

Programming Options & Hotel Assignments

During registration, participants will have the opportunity to sign up for optional programming, including the GC26 choir, mission experience and Educational Opportunities Tours.

For groups requesting specific hotels, accommodations will be assigned on a first-come basis and according to availability. Your registration summary will indicate your assigned hotel, and you may be asked to select a room type where options are available.

Once registration is submitted, you will receive:

A Registration Confirmation email , and
A Hotel Confirmation within 72 hours.

If not received, participants should contact Registration Concierge, Ginger Barbee

Travel Information Specifically for U.S. Delegates

Your Registration Confirmation will contain a link to the Travel Booking Form , where you will provide flight preferences. It is essential to complete this form only after finalizing your travel plans , especially if you intend to participate in pre- or post-conference mission work in Africa or an Educational Opportunities tour.

Uniglobe, our travel partner, will arrange flights and can assist with Frequent Flyer Miles or preferred airlines. Any changes to an approved itinerary are at the traveler’s personal expense. U.S. delegates will arrive Thursday, August 28 , and depart Sunday, September 6 .

Airport transfers will be provided only for those booked through Uniglobe. Delegates traveling within the operating hours of the Gautrain will receive a round-trip Gautrain transfer card upon arrival and must keep the card for their return trip.

Annual Conferences will be invoiced after GC26 for hotel rooms, with the $1,000 per-person credit applied . Conferences with a zero balance or a credit will not receive an invoice.

Hotel Information for U.S. Delegates, Exhibitors/Sponsors, Volunteers and Guests

The GMC has vetted and approved five hotels near the Sandton Convention Centre. All costs listed reflect a nine-night stay (August 28–September 6), include breakfast and incorporate current exchange and tax estimates.

The Connectional Council has approved a $1,000 hotel credit per U.S.-based delegate and alternate .

Hotel Options:

Sandton Towers – $2,159 single / $2,357 double
Closest to the Convention Centre; limited availability.
Sandton Sun – $2,001 single / $2,199 double
Connected via SkyBridge; 35 rooms available.
Garden Court – $894 single / $1,036 double
Highest number of rooms; most budget-friendly.
Protea Balalaika – $923 single / $1,081 double
Short walk or shuttle; 70 rooms available.
Radisson Blu Gautrain – $1,080 single / $1,213 double
Convenient location near the mall; 20 rooms available.

Information Specifically for Delegates Outside the U.S.

All hotel accommodations are fully covered by the GMC for elected delegates and alternates. Delegates/Alternates must provide a credit card at check-in for incidentals. Delegates will be paired with

roommate , unless they choose a preferred delegate roommate during registration.

Arrival dates vary by role and time zone, with most delegates arriving August 28–29. Airport transfers are provided for delegates/alternates traveling via Uniglobe.

On-Site Registration in Johannesburg

On-site registration will take place at the Sandton Convention Centre , with limited hours beginning Thursday, August 27 for those arriving early for pre-conference meetings. Final hours will be announced closer to the event.

Dress Code & Cultural Notes

Dress for GC26 is comfortable business casual —modest, culturally appropriate attire recommended for long days in meeting rooms that may feel cool. Jackets or light sweaters are suggested.

Participants are asked to refrain from political attire. Uniforms representing local churches are welcome. Attendees are especially encouraged to wear celebratory clothing for the Celebration of Africa on Wednesday, September 2.

Additional Details

Time Zone: GMT +2

Tipping: Restaurants: 10–15%, room service/housekeeping: ~10%

Per Diems: Non-U.S. delegates will receive a $65/day per diem at on-site registration.

Meals Provided: Breakfast daily at hotels, lunch daily (Aug 30–Sept 5) at the Convention Centre, dinner provided on Aug 30, Aug 31, and Sept 2

Altitude: Johannesburg sits at 5,700 ft (1,753 m) with dry air.

For More Information

For additional details about General Conference 2026, please visit beautyofholiness.org .

If you have questions or need assistance with registration, please contact Ginger Barbee, GC26 Registration Concierge , at gbarbee@globalmethodist.org .

General Conference Commission Projects 2026 Delegate Allocation

Thu, 27 Mar 2025 14:59:58 GMT

In order to guide annual conferences in electing delegates to the 2026 General Conference, the General Conference Commission has released its projections of how many delegates each annual conference will have. The official number of delegates for each annual conference will be set in February 2026, based on the number of churches and pastors on January 1, 2026.

Most delegates will be elected at annual conference meetings beginning in April, so it was necessary to provide preliminary guidance for how many delegates each conference should elect. Conferences will want to ensure they elect enough alternate and reserve delegates in case their official number increases a year from now.

This preliminary allocation sets the number of delegates at 420, which is at the high end of the acceptable range established by the Connectional Council. The allocation is based on estimated church and pastor numbers submitted by each conference superintendent.

The big story told by these numbers is the shift in the number of delegates between the U.S. and other parts of the global church, particularly Africa. In 2024, African delegates made up twelve percent of the delegates to Costa Rica. In 2026, African delegates may make up one-third of the delegation. This means the U.S. share may go down from 84 percent in 2024 to 61 percent in 2026, resulting in the loss of some delegates by some U.S. annual conferences.

This shift is larger than originally anticipated, as eight more African annual conferences are in development than expected when the number of delegates was set at 380-420. In addition, the number of churches and pastors in the four Nigerian conferences is greater than expected, and the Democratic Republic of Congo (now split into six annual conferences) has also experienced unexpected growth.

While Africa had only five annual conferences in 2024 at Costa Rica, they could have as many as 27 annual conferences represented in 2026. However, it is questionable whether all these annual conferences will be able to organize and have their convening conferences by the end of this year. The number of African annual conferences will probably be less than the 27, which will reduce the total number of delegates. Individual congregations throughout Africa will also need to go through the official registration process, which may further reduce their numbers.

The same is true of Asia and Latin America, both of which are projected to add two annual conferences each.

The General Conference Commission will recommend the final allocation of delegates to the Connectional Council based on actual official numbers, rather than estimates. That final allocation in February could see some delegate numbers shifting slightly up or down.

The preliminary allocation of delegates is posted on the Global Methodist Church website here.

As annual conferences elect delegates, alternates, and reserves for the 2026 General Conference, we can surround the process with prayer, relying on the Holy Spirit to guide the election of gifted leaders to help our denomination move forward in mission. We can also rejoice at the rapid growth of the Global Methodist Church in Africa, Asia, and Latin America. If all of the projected annual conferences come on line, the Global Methodist Church will be found in more than 27 different countries. We are becoming more global by the day!

Reverend Thomas L. Lambrecht serves as the General Conference Secretary for the Global Methodist Church.

2026 General Conference Planning Update

Thu, 27 Feb 2025 15:00:00 GMT

Commission on General Conference Releases Key Details, with More to Come in Future Weeks

The Global Methodist Church is pleased to announce that the Commission on General Conference, under the leadership of Chair Rev. Mike Grant, Vice Chair, the Rev. Dr. Anthony McPhail, and Secretary, Stacy Taylor, is actively engaged in planning all aspects of the 2026 General Conference. As preparations move forward, the Commission anticipates releasing the location, dates, theme, and additional details in the coming weeks.

While many aspects of the event are still being finalized, the delegate allocation process and other key details have already been determined.

Change to In-Person Legislative Committee Meetings

The Connectional Council has approved a plan to hold legislative committee meetings in person and on-site at the General Conference in 2026. This will provide a much superior experience, as face-to-face meetings are more fruitful than virtual ones. It means we will not have to contend with poor internet connections and accommodating drastic time zone differences. To accommodate this change, the conference will be lengthened from five days to seven.

The original plan had been to hold legislative committee meetings online through the summer of 2026 and limit the in-person General Conference to plenary sessions only. This plan was adopted by the 2024 General Conference in San Jose, Costa Rica, as part of the Plan of Organization for 2026. At that time, the Commission was operating under the information that none of the venues under consideration could accommodate in-person and on-site meetings of the legislative committees.

As planning continued following the 2024 General Conference, it became necessary for the Commission to consider other locations and venues than the ones originally contemplated. Several of these new venues did have room to accommodate legislative committee meetings, and after visits to the venues, the Commission made the recommendation to expand the General Conference from five days to seven, in order to include the legislative committee meetings.

The original plan for virtual legislative committee meetings was our attempt to make do with a less-than-ideal situation. The Commission welcomed the opportunity to include in-person meetings, as they believe it will be a much better experience for everyone. Following the Connectional Council’s approval of the change, General Conference delegates were polled, and 97 percent of those responding favored the move to a longer conference with in-person legislative committee meetings.

The good news is that this change is not expected to increase the cost of the General Conference. The budget has been adjusted accordingly to accommodate the expanded schedule while ensuring responsible financial stewardship.

Revised Deadlines and Timeline

Besides providing a better experience for everyone, the change to in-person meetings will have dramatic effects on the timeline and deadlines in the original Plan of Organization.

Under the new plan, legislative committees will meet once virtually about a month to six weeks before the General Conference. These meetings will allow the legislative committee members to introduce themselves and elect committee officers. The meeting will also include parliamentary procedure training in our rules of order. Having this meeting early will enable the committee officers to be trained prior to the General Conference, and they can begin organizing the committee’s work in advance, so the committees can begin work immediately when meeting on site.

The revised Plan of Organization and Covenant adopted by the Connectional Council is posted online here .

All the linked documents included in this article are available in all six official languages of the Global Methodist Church. You can access them here .

Key Delegate Allocation Details

To support annual conferences in planning and preparing for their delegation process, the Global Methodist Church is providing key information regarding delegate selection and certification timelines.

The allocation process is guided by key values ensuring:

Resources outlining the range of delegate numbers , allocation values , and selection process can be viewed here .

Looking Ahead to the 2026 General Conference

The Global Methodist Church remains committed to hosting a well-organized and impactful General Conference that reflects its mission:

“To make disciples of Jesus Christ and spread scriptural holiness across the globe.”

We are especially looking forward to hosting the 2026 General Conference in Africa, continuing to honor the global nature of our connection and celebrating the diverse and growing body of believers within the GMC.

Financial Support for This Historic Event

Annual conferences, churches, and individuals who are interested in helping financially support this historic event can do so online by visiting this link and selecting “General Conference” under the fund selection. If you prefer to give by check, please include the downloadable form that can be accessed on our website to ensure proper designation to the General Conference.

Checks should be made payable to “Global Methodist Church” and mailed to:

Global Methodist Church
P.O. Box 1360
King George, VA 22485

For online gifts of $5,000 or more, please email finance@globalmethodist.org to confirm your donation. Our provider will not process large gifts without confirmation from our team that the gift is legitimate.

If you have any questions about fund options, please don’t hesitate to reach out to us by email at finance@globalmethodist.org or call 540-898-4960 .

Stay tuned to our social media pages and watch for email announcements as we share exciting updates, including the location, dates, theme, and other important details in the coming weeks!

The post 2026 General Conference Planning Update first appeared on Making Disciples of Jesus | The Global Methodist Church .

gmc---2026

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Sample Legislation: Defining Area Committees on Episcopacy in BDD

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General Conference 2026 Registration & Travel Update

General Conference Registration & Travel Update: Everything You Need to Know

Registration

Programming Options & Hotel Assignments

Travel Information Specifically for U.S. Delegates

Hotel Information for U.S. Delegates, Exhibitors/Sponsors, Volunteers and Guests

Information Specifically for Delegates Outside the U.S. ﻿

On-Site Registration in Johannesburg

Dress Code & Cultural Notes

Additional Details

General Conference Commission Projects 2026 Delegate Allocation

2026 General Conference Planning Update

Jerry Kulah

Paul Lawler

Information Specifically for Delegates Outside the U.S.