The General Conference of The United Methodist Church starts on Wednesday April 23rd in Ft. Worth, TX with Opening Worship at 6:00 p.m. followed by the opening Plenary session at 8:00 p.m. It then continues every day, 8 a.m. till 11:00 p.m. until Friday, May 2.
I will write an email each night when I get back to the hotel that is a summary of sorts of what happened that day. Of course, I am not seeing and hearing everything that happens, but you will be getting one delegate's perspective of the events of the day. Susan Dal Porto from conference staff will edit and post my e-mails to a newly created blog that will be linked from the conference website.
The pre-conference reading for this is in 3 volumes and is 1560 pages of reports, Petitions, and proposed Resolutions. 13 Legislative Committees will consider each of the 1500 or so Petitions, and report back to the Plenary sessions, usually in consent calendar blocks that are voted up or down. In addition to the official readings, I have been getting mail from various groups trying to lobby me to support one side of an issue or the other.
I am also running as a candidate for the Judicial Council - the UMC version of the Supreme Court. That election will take place on Monday the 28th.
Since I am going all the way to Texas for 2 weeks, and there is virtually no time off during the GC, Deb decided to visit our friends in Lagos, Nigeria for a week. She will be there for our friend Barrett's 3rd Birthday party, an event that she is looking forward to even while she is trying to figure out how to carry 40 fire chief hats to Africa.
I plan to leave for Texas after church on the 20th, and will probably send an on-the-road update that night from somewhere in western Missouri.
Peace to all of you,
Jack
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