Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett announces that the called special session of the North Alabama Annual Conference on Saturday, Dec. 10, 2022, will be in Birmingham in the East Hall Ballrooms of the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Complex (BJCC).
The session will take place from 10 a.m. until noon. The business before this special session is to process current requests from congregations for disaffiliation under ¶2553 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline. The morning will include a time of worship and business where the Conference will approve disaffiliations and bless those who are departing. Following a break, the second portion of the morning will be a time of sharing about the future disciple-making ministry of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church.
The voting membership of the called Special Session will consist of the clergy members as defined in 32 of the Book of Discipline and the lay members of the June 2022 Annual Conference (lay member or alternate, whoever was last seated in the June annual conference) in accordance with Book of Discipline 602.5.
The business of a special session of the Annual Conference is limited to what is stated in the call. More information will be posted at www.umcna.org/ac22specialsession and emailed to Annual Conference members.
Below is the call Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett issued on June 18, 2022:
A Special Session of the Annual Conference of the North Alabama Conference of The United Methodist Church is called to be held on Saturday, December 10, 2022, starting at ten o’clock a.m. CST. It will be within the bounds of the North Alabama Conference with the specific location to be announced in the near future.
The purpose of the called Special Session of the Annual Conference will be to process the current requests for disaffiliation under ¶2553 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline. Membership of the called Special Session will consist of the voting members of the June 2022 Annual Conference (¶602.5).
This is the first of potentially three gatherings our Annual Conference will have to vote on disaffiliations for churches who, after going through our discernment process, discern to disaffiliate from The United Methodist Church. The other dates will be at the regular Annual Conference session in June 2023 and possibly another called Annual Conference in December 2023.
The December 2022 called Annual Conference will be followed by a worship service for the purpose of blessing and sending forth of churches who are disaffiliating from the North Alabama Conference.
Original source can be found here.
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