United Methodists gathering at their annual conferences worldwide will share at least one common task this year: voting on whether to ratify four sets of constitutional amendments which have been approved by at least a 2/3 majority of delegates to the 2024 General Conference.
Each annual conference will vote on four ballots containing one or more constitutional amendments. Ballot 1 covers all of the amendments related to regionalization. Ballot 2 addresses two changes made to Paragraph 4, adding “gender” and “ability” to the list of categories that cannot be used to exclude persons from membership in The United Methodist Church. Ballot 3 is for a new Article V, which places the denomination’s commitment to the eradication of the sin of racism in all its forms into the constitution. Ballot 4 involves several changes to Paragraph 35 intended to provide a uniform basis for eligibility for clergy to vote for clergy delegates to the General Conference and jurisdictional or central conferences. Further information about about each of these items is available here.
Unlike other ballots taken at annual conferences, the results of these ballots will not be announced at the time of the vote. Instead, each annual conference will send its voting results to the Council of Bishops. The Council will tally and announce the aggregate results of each ballot at their fall meeting. This process ensures that all annual conference members have the time to vote without being influenced by the results of votes in previous annual conferences.
Each ballot item will be ratified if at least 2/3 of the votes cast by all annual conferences worldwide approve its ratification. Ratified constitutional amendments go into immediate effect along with other legislation passed by the general conference that depended on the passage of the relevant amendments.
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