Board launches missionary
recruitment campaign



Action ends questions
about delegate counts
for General Conference

United Methodist News Service
The Judicial Council last month upheld its earlier ruling that the Methodist Church of Ivory Coast wasn’t fully admitted to The United Methodist Church in 2004. As a result, the Ivory Coast Conference may be limited to two delegates at the 2008 General Conference.
The ruling eliminates a lingering question about how many delegates the Southwest Texas Conference would elect in June. If the denominational “supreme count” had reversed itself, Southwest Texas might have lost two to four delegates to next year’s policymaking assembly in Fort Worth.
Meeting in Manila, Philippines, April 25-28, the nine-member council—with one member absent—reaffirmed its October decision (No. 1051) that the 2004 General Conference was within its authority to award Ivory Coast (Cote d’Ivoire) two delegates—one clergy, one laity—at the 2008 assembly.
The reaffirmation of Decision 1051 is Memorandum 1071. Council members James W. Holsinger, Mary A. Daffin and Keith D. Boyette signed the decision as dissenters, simply referencing the original dissent filed with Decision 1051.
At the October session, a majority of the seven Judicial Council members present voted to hold the action of the 2004 General Conference regarding Ivory Coast unconstitutional. However, Paragraph 2608 of the 2004 Book of Discipline requires that “(a)n affirmative vote of at least six members of the council shall be necessary to declare any act of the General Conference unconstitutional.” The decision failed to garner the six votes needed.
In the October decision, the council made it clear that the action by the 2004 General Conference “was not a final act of admission” of Cote d’Ivoire into the larger church and that additional legislation is expected to give that West African area full rights and representation at the General Conference, which meets every four years.
On the last day of the 2004 General Conference, the Commission on Central Conference Affairs proposed the addition of Cote d’Ivoire to the West Africa Central Conference. The proposal recommended that the West Africa Central Conference, the Commission on Central Conference Affairs and the General Board of Global Ministries work together on the entry of Cote d’Ivoire into the denomination during the upcoming quadrennium.
A substitute motion was passed. It had four separate provisions. One gave Ivory Coast two representatives at the 2008 General Conference.
The Judicial Council chided the General Conference in the October ruling for not following proper procedure for admitting a new annual conference.
“The substitute (motion) adopted anticipates that the 2008 General Conference will consider further legislative action to include Cote d’Ivoire into the Episcopal Fund,” the council’s ruling said. “The remaining formalities of affiliation or admission should be completed by the agencies to whom the responsibility is assigned in time for presentation to and perfection by the 2008 General Conference. Once the process of joining The United Methodist Church is fully achieved, Cote d’Ivoire would have the right to full representation in its delegations to the 2012 and succeeding General Conference sessions.”
The Cote d’Ivoire Conference reported to the General Council of Finance and Administration that, as of June 26, 2006, it had 123 full-time clergy and 591,142 professing members. That’s the largest membership of any conference.