Process for picking laity delegates for ’08 picks up speed

Church political activity among some laypeople picked up speed last month. But many other church members may not have noticed.
Southwest Texas Conference Lay Leader Jay Brim prompted the increased political attention. He sent pastors and elected lay members of the 2006 annual conference session questionnaires Sept. 1 for prospective delegates to the 2008 General and South Central Jurisdictional conferences.
Elections for both laity and clergy delegates to the 2008 assemblies are to dominate business during the June 6-9 annual conference session in Corpus Christi.
Elders and deacons in full connection will be voting for clergy delegates. Lay members will be picking laity delegates.
The exact number of clergy and laity representatives Southwest Texas will have at each meeting isn’t known yet.
The pastors have an easier selection process. Only elders and deacons in full connection can vote. They elect delegates for a pool of some 510 potential candidates—the number of Southwest Texas elders and deacons in full connection.
As a result, clergy members have a pretty good chance of knowing who is seeking election. Furthermore, clergy voters are likely to know something about those contenders.
That’s not the case among the more than 650 elected lay members of the annual conference session. They can vote for any layperson who has been a member of a Southwest Texas Conference congregation for at least two years and has been an active United Methodist for at least four.
That means more than 100,000 laypeople are eligible for selection. Most lay representatives from the 346 Southwest Texas congregations aren’t likely to know more than a few hundred of them.
That’s where Brim’s questionnaire comes in. Under the conference standing rules, the Board of Laity sends out the questionnaire to collect information from laypeople who want to be considered for election.
Those potential laity candidates need to complete the questionnaire, be endorsed by their church council or charge conference and return the form to Conference Secretary David Seilheimer by Feb. 1.
Seilheimer is to distribute copies of each completed form to all lay members of the 2007 annual conference session at least three weeks before the June 6-9 meeting convenes. Seilheimer’s effort will be the only way the conference assists in publicizing laity candidates.
Laity delegates are expected to attend monthly meetings leading up to the April 23 to May 2, 2008, General Conference in Fort Worth and the July 16-18, 2008, jurisdictional conference in Dallas, Brim said. They will spend nearly two weeks in Fort Worth and nearly another week in Dallas.
The Southwest Texas Conference provides money for basic travel expenses, Brim noted. But delegates should be prepared to cover other expenses from their pockets.
The General Conference is the top policymaking assembly in the denomination. Every four years it brings together nearly 1,000 delegates—half clergy, half laity—from around the globe to revise church law. They act on more than 3,000 legislative petitions. Those come from denominational agencies, annual conferences, local congregations and individual church members.
Decisions made at General Conference change The Book of Discipline and The Book of Resolutions.
Jurisdictional conferences primarily elect bishops. The more than 300 delegates to the South Central session—half clergy, half laity from eight states— are to elect at least four new bishops.
In addition, they are to assign a replacement for Bishop Joel N. Martinez. He retires Aug. 31, 2008.
If you want a prospective delegate form, ask your pastor, or download a copy Lay Delegate Endorsement Form