General Board Orientation Handbook

1 General Board Orientation Handbook 2016-20202016-2020 african methodist episcopal church 1 Table of ContentsGreetings ..2 Genesis of the General Board ..4 The Role of the General Board ..8 Duties of the General Board ..11 Rules of the General Board ..13 Reporting to the General Board ..16 Financial Considerations for the General Board ..19 General Board Members ..22 General Board Commissions ..38 Assignment of Bishops ..38 Index and AME Meeting APP ..40 Dropbox Overview ..41 The General Board Orientation Handbook 2016-2020 2 A publication of the Office of the General Seretary2016-2020 african methodist episcopal church 3 Genesis of the General Board2016-2020 african methodist episcopal church 5 THE GENESIS OF THE General Board : AN HISTORICAL SUMMARYD ennis C.

2 DickersonThe roots of this effort to reform the infrastructure of the african methodist episcopal church lay in the late 1940s when a talented tenth of leading ministers determined that the denomination badly needed internal change. So, for example, Frank R. Veal, a Cincinnati pastor and later president of Allen University, in 1947 called together a cadre of clergy to agree on legislation for the 1948 General Conferences relating to improved election procedures, greater fiscal accountability, and more efficiency in operating schools. Veal especially wanted the involvement of Archibald J. Carey, Jr., the son and namesake of the 43rd Bishop, because he and others had confidence in his integrity.

3 Carey, the pastor at Woodlawn church in Chicago and soon to be elected an alderman, became Veal s candidate for the presidency of the Connectional Council. Hence, Carey, at his first meeting in 1950 in Jacksonville, Florida, urged discussions of pressing denominational issues. This forum drew comments from the Yale trained John H. Lewis, Dean at Payne Theological Seminary, Daniel G. Hill, a professor and later Dean at the School of Religion at Howard University, and Frederick D. Jordan, a Garrett graduate and candidate for the episcopacy. A. Wayman Ward, an Iliff graduate and a presiding elder in the Chicago Annual Conference, for example, focused on several legal,insurance, educational, evangelical, and fiscal issues.

4 One result of this discourse and push for better denominational governance was passage of a bill at the 1952 General Conference in Chicago, Illinois, to establish a Judicial Council to settle internal efforts laid foundations for a grassroots organization to challenge the Dollar Money system in favor of a better funding formula for the church . Familiarly known as The Brotherhood, both the clergy and laity in the early 1950s, committed to establish a budget system to eliminate financial irregularities and misappropriations and to insure that sufficient monies were available to operate denominational ministries and departments. H. Ralph Jackson, a pugnacious pastor in the 13th episcopal District who served in both Nashville and Memphis, led The Brotherhood.

5 The organization also included innumerable others who became leaders in the denomination. They agreed that they would push for the enactment of their proposed reforms at the 1956 General Conference in Miami, took the floor at the Dinner Key Auditorium and motioned that business methods make it imperative that we have a Budget to cover all connectional monies or expenditures. He added that the General Conference should direct the Revision Committee and (the) Temporal (Economy) Committee to prepare a Budget that will include all necessary items for the General church . Jackson, a native Alabamian, like scores of other ministers and laypersons, had grown weary of seemingly arbitrary and excessive requests through special days and special offerings to supplement Dollar Money, an amount collected annually from every member.

6 A denomination of a million members on three continents, they believed, needed a rational fiscal system that minimized the financial burdens placed upon pastors and parishes particularly in economically vulnerable and difficult places. Parliamentary persistence and masterful organizing among General Conference delegates was The Brotherhood strategy and Jackson, the group s principal point person, appeared frequently on the floor to focus attention of delegates on the proposed budget reforms. For example, he rose to voice a (about) the order of the day, (on) Tuesday, May 3, 1956, at 10 , (noting that) the Committee on Revision and the Committee on Temporal Economy would report on the Connectional Budget.

7 He requested that the minutes include the exact wording which requested a report on an all-inclusive budget. He wanted the records to show that this directive was adopted by the General Conference. Ultimately, the bill establishing a General Board was enacted with Bishop Sherman L. Greene, Sr. as president. Districts 1 through 18 had four representatives evenly divided between clergy and laypersons, though Districts 14, 16 and 18 still needed their allotment of delegates to be this first group of episcopal district representatives were Robert Thomas, Jr., Henry W. Murph, Harold I. Bearden, Frederick C. James, and C. E. Thomas, all of whom were elected Bishops in the 1960s and 1970s. There also were 18 members-at-large with 9 clergy and 9 laypersons.

8 The clergy representatives included some of the most active members of The Brotherhood including H. Ralph Jackson, Archibald J. Carey, Jr., Frank R. Veal, S. M. Davis, and others. A General Board of Education also was instituted with oversight of the Division of Educational Institutions, the Division of Christian Education, and the Editorial General Board legislation mandated that there shall be established a central fund in the church and it shall be known as the General Budget Fund. These entities embraced 17 areas: I. episcopal Fund II. Administration Fund (Laymen s Activities) III. Minimum Salary Fund IV. Publication Fund V. Conference Benevolence Fund VI. Inter-denominational Cooperation Fund VII.

9 episcopal District Projects FundThe General Board Orientation Handbook 2016-2020 6 VIII. Evangelism Fund IX. Historiographer Fund X. Secretary church XI. Pension Fund XII. Mission Fund XIII. church Extension Fund XIV. Women( s) Missionary Fund XV. Religious Education Fund XVI. Educational Institute Fund XVII. ReserveTo fund these activities the General Conference shall apportion the amount of the General Budget Fund to the various episcopal Districts. Moreover, when this amount has been allocated, it shall represent the total assessment upon an episcopal District, Annual Conference, and local church for Connectional and episcopal District operation.

10 The power of assessment shall reside in the General Conference only. No additional fund shall be requested or accepted from any episcopal District Annual Conference or local church . It became the duty of the General Board to monitor the connectional budget, audit all accounts of agencies receiving funds, and in case of an emergency between sessions of the General Conference, the Bishops Council by a 2/3 vote may recommend to the General Board the authorization of a special financial appeal. A % vote of the General Board shall grant such authorization. 3 The agreed assessment on members to fund the new budget system became $ This amount, many later concluded, was insufficient and was responsible for shortfalls in denominational funding.