Sample Legislation: Defining Area Committees on Episcopacy in BDD

Read in French | Read in Korean | Read in Portuguese | Read in Spanish | Read in Swahili 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

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

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.