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To put
things in prospective it would be helpful to briefly describe the
structure of the Annual Conference and its relationship to the Methodist
Church.
- The Annual
Conference is a
regional body, an organizational
unit and a yearly meeting - presided over by an elected bishop.
It is the connectional unit between the Local Church
and the United Methodist
Church and is described in the
church’s Book of Discipline and the “basic unit” of the church.
The South Carolina Annual Conference includes
the entire state, while other conferences may include several states or
parts of states in the US and similar divisions
throughout the world. The US has
63 annual conferences, supervised by 50 bishops and there are 59 annual
conferences throughout the world supervised by 18 bishops.
The Annual Conference has a central office and staff that
coordinate and conduct the business of the Annual Conference. The
SC Annual Conference is presided over by Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor.
- The
Annual Conference is separated into districts presided
over by a district superintendent. The
districts are made up of churches in a
geographic area that provide spiritual and pastoral leadership and
oversee the ministry of the districts clergy. The
BUMC is in the Walterboro District
which is presided over by Reverend Dr. Ernest
C. Etheredge.
- The organization of the United
Methodist Church creates a structure for connectionalism and is
decentralized and democratic in nature. Clergy
and laity alike help determine the ministry and workings of the UMC
through the petitions and resolutions they send from the Annual
Conferences to the General Conference.
Bishops are elected at the Jurisdictional
Conferences. Each Annual Conference
elects delegates to the Jurisdictional Conference and the General
Conference of the United
Methodist Church
This year 20 laity and 5 alternates and
a similar number of clergy were elected to both the Jurisdictional
Conference and the General Conference alike from some 60 of each laity
and clergy candidates. Click on the
following link for more information regarding the United Methodist Church Structure.
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