Much of the legislation that passed at the 2019 Northern Illinois Annual Conference reflected the disapproval of the Traditional Plan adopted at the General Conference Special Session in February that enhances current policies around homosexuality in the Book of Discipline and strengthens enforcement of those rules.
Read MoreNIC representatives respond to the UMC-Next meeting in Kansas which brought together 600 centrists and progressives representing every United Methodist Annual Conference in the United States to engage in Christian Conferencing about how to respond to the passage of the Traditional Plan.
Read MoreThe Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church completed its May 2019 meeting held outside Chicago with a pastoral and prophetic word in response to the decisions of the Special Session and the codification of some of those decisions in the Book of Discipline.
Read MoreAs most of you may know, yesterday the Judicial Council, the nine-member top court of The United Methodist Church, released their rulings from February’s Special General Conference related to the Traditional Plan and disaffiliation legislation.
Read MoreThe United Methodist Church’s top court has found that while some provisions of the newly adopted Traditional Plan remain unconstitutional, the rest of the plan is valid as church law. That was the Judicial Council’s ruling on a requested review of the Traditional Plan, which was approved during a special denomination-wide legislative session in February to strengthen enforcement of bans on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy and same-sex weddings.
Read MoreThe Council of Bishops is inviting the people of The United Methodist Church to be in prayer for the Judicial Council, which is in session this week in Evanston. The Judicial Council will be discussing the constitutionality of matters related to the Special Session of the General Conference held in February.
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