There are big changes happening in the life of the North Georgia Conference, and we want to make sure all at St Paul UMC are informed about it.
First, a little background: In July 2024, the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference adopted a Georgia Episcopal Area and assigned Bishop Robin Dease as resident bishop, serving both the North and South Georgia Annual Conferences, effective September 1, 2024. Since the day of her assignment, Bishop Dease called on Georgia United Methodists to consider “the power of we”. After a year and a half of prayerful study, engagement, discernment, and diligent work, the Common Table of the North Georgia Annual Conference and the Leadership Forum of the South Georgia Annual Conference have put forth the Georgia Unification Plan to bring all of Georgia’s UMC churches together as one Annual Conference.
The core of the plan consists of twenty working group reports covering areas from ministry and discipleship to finance, administration, and the work of the laity. In addition, the plan contains proposed resolutions for each annual conference, a timeline for the process ahead, and the proposed standing rules, including the Plan of Organization and Rules of Order.
The plan can be found at www.GeorgiaUMC.org/
In addition to reviewing the unification plan you can also get more information about this important proposal through upcoming information sessions. The session for St. Paul’s district (the South West District) is set for Sunday, April 26 at 3pm at Ben Hill UMC. We encourage those interested to attend this session, but you may attend any session offered. There will also be Zoom sessions on May 6 at 6:30pm and June 10 at 6:30pm. Registration is encouraged if you plan to attend a session. All dates and registration links can be found here: https://www.ngumc.org/
If you have any questions about the proposal please feel free to reach out to Pastor Cassie, Katie Varner (St Paul’s Lay Leader), or Mark Crenshaw (St Paul’s Annual Conference Delegate).
Additional Resources:
Article about the Unification Plan: https://www.ngumc.org/
North Georgia Conference website: https://www.ngumc.org/
Georgia Area website: https://www.georgiaumc.org/