Louisiana Now Louisiana Conference

Our updates from General Conference continue. In this episode, we look back at the start of Week 2 from Charlotte, North Carolina. 
Bishop Delores J. Williamston presided over the morning plenary session and we had a chance to catch up with her afterward. She talks more about what it felt to sit in the chair and what this week looks like. 
 

Todd Rossnagel and Todd Seifert have served together on UMAC (United Methodist Association of Communicators) leadership teams. As you might expect, identifying two Todd's became a challenge on ZOOM, so Todd Rossnagel received the nickname "Cajun Todd" (Louisiana), while Todd Seifert earned the nickname "Plain Todd" (Great Plains).  
In this episode of Louisiana NOW, Rossnagel and Seifert unpack General Conference, discuss what it's like to cover General Conference from a media perspective, and share more about Bishop Delores J. Williamston, who served in the Great Plains Conference before being assigned to the Louisiana Conference. 

UNITED METHODIST NEWS: General Conference has now passed much of the legislation that aims to give The United Methodist Church’s different geographic regions equal standing in decision-making.
In what outgoing Council of Bishops President Thomas J. Bickerton called “a historic day for our church,” delegates voted 586 to 164 for an amendment to the denomination’s constitution that will now go before annual conference voters for potential ratification.
A constitutional amendment requires at least a two-thirds vote at General Conference; the regionalization amendment received 78% of the vote. To be ratified, the amendment also will need at least a two-thirds total vote of annual conference lay and clergy voters. Annual conferences are church regions consisting of multiple congregations and other ministries.
Regionalization has become United Methodist shorthand for a package of legislation that would restructure the denomination. Under the legislation, the U.S. and each central conference — church regions in Africa, Europe and the Philippines — would become regional conferences with the same authority to adapt the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, for more missional effectiveness.
At present, only central conferences have that authority under the denomination’s constitution to adapt the Discipline as missional needs and different legal contexts require.
To see the story with Rev. Marissa Horvath, please click here. 

In this episode of the Louisiana NOW podcast, we delve into the start of General Conference held in Charlotte, North Carolina. We catch up with Bishop Delores J. Williamston, Jennifer Swann, and other delegates. 
 

The General Conference of The United Methodist Church is meeting April 23 through May 3, 2024, in Charlotte, NC. In this episode, Todd Rossnagel shares a preview of the gathering, including comments from Bishop Delores J. Williamston, Rev. Bardy Whitton, and Jennifer Swann, members of the Louisiana delegation. 
For more on General Conference, and to stay up to date with the latest news, decisions and celebrations from this global gathering, please click here. 
To watch the Louisiana Conference preview show, mentioned in this episode, please click here.  

In this episode of the Louisiana NOW podcast, we visit with Dr. Ashley Boggan D., the General Secretary of the General Commission on Archives and History. 
Ahsley helps to ensure that the UMC understands its past in order to envision a more equitable future for all Methodists. Boggan earned her PhD from Drew Theological School’s Graduate Division of Religion, specializing in both Methodist/Wesleyan Studies and Women’s/Gender Studies. 
For more on Boggan's series of talks at the 2023 Annual Conference, go here. 
For more on the Radicle Methodism course, click here. 
For more on Donna Fowler Marchant's Mothers in Israel: Methodist beginnings through the Eyes of Women, go here.
 
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