Petitions

2026 General Conference

Pre-Conference Petitions Report

The Pre-Conference Petitions Report contains the official text of every petition properly before the General Conference, organized to help delegates and observers in the work of the legislative process. Users will find an overview of the petitions process — its timeline, statistics, and Petitions Committee — along with three hyperlinked indexes (by committee, by paragraph, and by number). Each legislative committee’s petitions are gathered in its own section and sorted by paragraph, with line numbers and a bold action header atop every petition stating whether it amends, replaces, deletes, or adds. A numerical index accounts for every petition submitted, including the rationale for each one’s disposition.


A few conventions are worth noting before delegates begin. To assist in translation and global communications, in most cases a deletion is shown by striking the whole sentence rather than individual words; to be good stewards of space and printing costs, struck paragraphs have been removed from the text. For both reasons, delegates are strongly encouraged to keep the 2024 Book of Doctrines and Discipline close at hand — in print or via the free digital edition at globalmethodist.org — especially when working with petitions that amend or replace existing language. Resolutions adopted by the plenary session will be printed in the back of the Book of Doctrines and Discipline. Users will also find all titles and honorifics have been removed so as to reinforce the priesthood of all believers and the reality that all members of the GMC are of equal status.


The report is being produced in the official languages of the church (English, French, Spanish, Kiswahili, Korean, and Portuguese), and — for this conference — also in Amharic, Russian, and Thai. Its look, feel, and pagination are consistent across all nine editions, so that each petition begins on the same page in every language.


Users are encouraged to download the report onto a digital device to use throughout the next two months and at the conference, where every footer and index is fully hyperlinked for quick navigation.


Please let General Conference Petitions Secretary Lamar Oliver know of any errors or omissions (loliver@globalmethodist.org).

Pre-Conference Petitions Report — Update for v1.0-v1.15

If you downloaded a Pre-Conference Petitions Report PRIOR to July 6, 2026 @ 2120 UTC, click the button below to download the update packet.

Refer to the page numbers in the footer for which pages these documents replace.


Download Update

Petitions Report Version Log


Significant content changes only — petition paragraph corrections and text/section-header fixes. Any indices affected were also changed. Build-process detail (backups, font/rendering checks, pagination mechanics) is tracked separately in the internal release log.


v1.0 — First Release July 1, 2026

  • Initial publication of the Pre-Conference Petitions Report in all nine languages (English, Spanish, French, Portuguese, Kiswahili, Korean, Amharic, Russian, Thai).


v1.1 — Perfecting Release July 2, 2026

  • Restored two missing section headings (Petition 1283, Amharic; Petition 1174, Korean).
  • Petitions 1412 & 1415: Added missing bold declaration lines.
  • Cover letter: Corrected the pagination-alignment claim to the measured figure (“over 90%”).


v1.2 — Corrections Release July 7, 2026

  • Cover letter: Corrected a paragraph-merge error introduced during translation processing (six languages), and matched section-header bar formatting to English (eight languages). (v1.15)
  • Petition 1470: Corrected the header's paragraph reference (¶704.5 corrected to ¶805.5). (v1.16)
  • Petition 1032 (¶438.2): Restored a dropped phrase and a dropped space in the amended TEXT block.
  • Petitions 1037 & 1041 (Portuguese): Corrected the Organização field and restored a missing Rationale paragraph.
  • Petition 1055: Restored a missing Rationale paragraph (non-English editions).
  • Petitions 1096, 1108, 1128, 1167, 1181, 1226, and 1264 (non-English editions): Removed erroneous duplicated “old paragraph” text that had preceded the correct amended text.
  • Petition 1111: Corrected the declaration line's paragraph reference (¶804.3 corrected to ¶302.3).
  • Petition 1190 (Russian): Restored the intended, trimmed petition text.
  • Petitions 1409 & 1410: Corrected a duplicated place name in the Organization field.
  • Petition 1453 (¶906.2): Corrected an over-broad strikethrough that had removed text the petitioner never asked to change.


v1.21 — July 9, 2026

  • Petitions 1008 & 1009 (Spanish, Korean, Portuguese, Kiswahili) and 1001, 1005, 1024, 1088, 1199 (French): Restored commas and spacing dropped during translation processing.
  • Companion Errata Insert issued for v1.0-v1.15 (all nine languages): a standalone Committee Divider, Paragraph Order Index, and Numerical Petition Index reflecting Petition 1470's page-number shift (see v1.16), for delegates who already printed an earlier edition.


v1.30 — July 24, 2026

  • Petition 1096 (¶502 / ¶405): Reassigned from the Local Church to the Ministry Legislative Committee, per Reference Committee action of 21 July 2026. The petition did not move in the report; however, affected indexes and statistical references were updated to reflect this change.
  • Petition 1469 (¶503.1): Corrected an erroneous Local Church assignment — reassigned to the Ministry Legislative Committee and its paragraph reference corrected from ¶403.1 to ¶503.1 (heading, text declaration and amendment heading, indexes, and statistics), matching the petition's own text (Order of Deacons). The petition did not move in the report.
  • Petition 1171 (¶443.4): Header paragraph reference corrected from ¶443.5, confirmed against the Book of Doctrines & Discipline and the petition's own text. Applied as a label-only correction with the page frozen — the petition did not move (it remains on page 170).

PETITIONS UPDATES

The petitions ministry of a General Conference plays a crucial role in the broader narrative of a denomination's history, as it provides a record of the matters that were on the hearts and minds of the church's people at a particular point in its history.


For questions, email petitions@globalmethodist.org.

January 2026 Update

VIEW CONNECTIONAL CONVERSATIONS: PETITIONS | December 5, 2025

PETITION PROCESS INFORMATION PACKET

PETITIONS Examples

PETITIONS TRAINING VIDEOS


Led by Petitions Secretary, Lamar Oliver, these tutorial videos outline the petitions submissions process for the Global Methodist Church's 2026 General Conference. They cover essential documents, requirements, and detailed instructions on filling out the petition form, crafting the petition text, and submitting resolutions.

Annual Conference Submissions

English

French

Korean

Portuguese

Spanish

Individual Submissions

English

French

Korean

Portuguese

Spanish

Official Church Board/Commission Submissions

English

French

Korean

Portuguese

Spanish