How a Memorial Becomes a Petition for Change
As a kid, we’d turn on the television as soon as we got home from school, watching ABC Afterschool Specials until five minutes before mom was due to arrive, then opening our books to pretend that we had been doing homework. (GenX latchkey kids will get this reference. It took a few minutes for the tube TV to cool down and the dot to go away, so you couldn’t turn it off right when she pulled into the driveway.) But even without cracking a book, we were being educated. All I really need to know about law I learned on Schoolhouse Rock. Some of us can still sing along with Bill: “I’m just a bill, yes, I’m only a bill and I’m sitting here on Capitol Hill… but I know I’ll be a law some day, at least I hope and pray that I will…” (https://youtu.be/SZ8psP4S6BQ?si=9GcFGajguMj9DMcI)
I wish we had a cartoon character singing about how resolutions to change The Discipline make their way to the steps of General Conference. Memorials are resolutions, statements of opinion written by Wesleyans, accompanied by relevant facts, petitioning for changes they would like the General Conference to review and decide if The Discipline should be altered or amended.
If a memorial touches the Constitution, paragraphs 200–385 of The Discipline, it has to meet a higher threshold. They can only be submitted from a district conference by a two-thirds majority vote or submitted by the General Board.
All other memorials are statutory (outside of the Constitution) and only require a majority vote at the General Conference to pass. Memorials are submitted to the General Secretary’s office by November 1 of the year preceding General Conference, which will be held this year, May 17–20, in Marion, Indiana. Robert’s Rules of Order are followed in the formatting of memorials (lots of Whereas, semicolons, and Resolved). These are reviewed by the General Board, serving as the Committee on Memorials.
Unlike the Schoolhouse Rock Bill, memorials can’t get stuck in committee.
Statutory memorials can be submitted by the General Board, a General Conference committee, a district conference, a district board of administration, the governing board of an educational institution (Houghton, IWU, Kingswood, OWU, SWU, Wesley Seminary), the governing board of a subsidiary corporation (Hephzibah 64:2, Immigrant Connection, Wesleyan Pension Fund, Wesleyan Investment Foundation), or any ten members of the General Conference.
Congressmen discuss and debate whether they should let Bill be a law.
Similarly, at General Conference, memorials are presented for discussion and vote. Any of the 342 General Conference delegates can speak for or against the memorial prior to a vote.
Just like those afternoon television specials, you don’t want to miss the memorials that will be presented at the 15th General Conference of The Wesleyan Church. Will the Colleagues in Ministry Memorial pass? Stay tuned!
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Rev. Dr. Priscilla Bray Hammond is an ordained minister in The Wesleyan Church and currently serves as President of Wesleyan Holiness Women Clergy. She holds a Master of Ministry from Southern Wesleyan University and a PhD in Organizational Leadership from Indiana Wesleyan University, bringing together church leadership and organizational insight in service to the Kingdom. Dr. Hammond teaches ministerial preparation and leadership courses through The Wesleyan Church and higher education institutions, helping pastors and students connect leadership principles to the work of the church. She is also Dean of the Benson School of Business, serves as Director of Operations for Kaleo Church, contributes regularly to the Wesleyan Publishing House devotional Light from the Word, and is a Certified Missional Coach.
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