Connections: Other places on the web relating to Wesley Church

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New UMC Book of Discipline

With the new structuring of the United Methodist Church comes legislation to overhaul the Book of Discipline that describes the mission, structure, policies, and procedures of the church at all levels (local church, annual conference, and denominational). See the proposed legislation in volume 2, Section 2 of the Daily Christian Advocate (PDF). Scroll down to page 731 for the start of the proposed draft of the new Book of Discipline.

Annual Conference Session

Our Annual Conference Session is where clergy and lay representatives from United Methodist churches from the southern end of the San Joaquin Valley to the Oregon border and all of Nevada except for the Las Vegas area (over 1000 delegates) gather together for the annual meeting. It is held in central CA (usually Sacramento) in mid-June (before or after Father's Day) from Friday to Monday. Nick Strobel and Linda Ramirez are the lay delegates and our pastor is the clergy delegate for our church. You can also see the first part of the ACS 2010 report for a photo-journal that gives you an idea of what an Annual Conference Session is like.

2024 Annual Conference Session: June 7-10, 2024 in Sacramento with the theme "Following Jesus". Read Nick Strobel's ACS 2024 Report (a PDF download).

Annual Conference Session links: 2024 -- 2022 -- 2021 -- 2019 -- 2018 -- 2017 -- 2016 -- 2015

Handbook for Newbies to an Annual Conference Session (select the link to download the Word doc)

Reports from past Annual Conferences are available on the Past Annual Conferences page.

The "Journal" from the most recent Annual Conference Session is on the Resources / Journals page of the Cal-Nevada UMC website. The Journal gives a complete record of what happened at an Annual Conference Session. See the "Previous Journals" page for the records of previous AC sessions.

Rethink Church

Powered by the Holy Spirit, 'Rethink Church' serves as a catalyst that moves the denomination, and those we hope to reach, into dialogue -- and ultimately, into transformative, collaborative action. What if church were a verb? What would it look like? Go to "RethinkChurch.org" for more about changes underway in the United Methodist Church.

Western Jurisdictional Conference

Every four years representatives from the United Methodist churches in Alaska, California, Nevada, Arizona, Oregon, Idaho, Washington, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Wyoming, and Hawaii gather to plan programs for the next four years and elect bishops for the annual conferences in the western United States.

General Conference

Every four years representatives from United Methodist churches all over the world gather to set direction for the entire denomination for the following four years. General Conference is the only body that officially speaks for the denomination.

The 2020 session was postponed to 2024 because of the COVID pandemic and disaffiliation movements of a significant proportion of U.S. churches. The postponed 2020 General Conference will be held in Charlotte, North Carolina April 23 - May 3, 2024 with the theme "...and Know that I am God." It will be livestreamed (select the link to bring up the livestream). The California-Nevada Conference delegation discuss their preparations for the General Conference session (archived on YouTube).

To find out more about General Conferences in general, see the Exploring General Conference course or see the materials in our website about the UMC organization from our link below.

United Methodist Church Organization

Wesley United Methodist Church -- Bakersfield, CA