Delegates

Choosing Delegates

The UMC constitution mandates that every annual conference have at least one clergy and one lay delegate. After that, the denomination sets numbers based on a membership data.

Just as in Congress, the more UMC members an annual conference has, the larger its delegation. For this General Conference, the delegate numbers were based on data from 2017, before the pandemic and the season of disaffiliations.

The United Methodist Church is governed democratically. The denomination has no figurehead, like the Roman Catholic Church, which has a pope. Instead, the General Conference of the UMC gathers every four years to consider matters of the church — from governance to polity to social principles to address issues of our time.

The General Conference is comprised of an equal number of clergy and laity, each elected by their annual conferences, which usually are defined by geographical boundaries. Bishops cannot serve as delegates, and they have no vote during the General Conference session. It may be helpful to think of delegates as though they are elected members to a United Methodist congress to represent the people who elected them.

For the upcoming General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, there will be 862 voting delegates, again, half clergy and half laity. The demographics are:

United States — 482 delegates, 55.9%
Africa nations — 278 delegates, 32.3%
Southeast Asia — 52 delegates, 6%
Europe — 40 delegates, 4.6%
Concordat denominations — 10 delegates, 1.2%

Annual conference elect the number of people needed to fill their allotment of voting seats on the General Conference floor, as well as the same number of clergy and laity for what are called Jurisdictional Conferences, which is where bishops are elected. Jurisdictional delegates are available to serve as reserves for the General Conference delegates throughout the proceedings.

As you might imagine, people from around the world speak a number of different languages. So the proceedings will be translated for delegates in nine languages, including American Sign Language. Written materials will be available in the four official General Conference languages: English, French, Kiswahili, and Portuguese.

You may contact the Great Plains delegation via email by clicking the button below.

Great Plains Delegates

The following is the list of delegates who will represent the conference in Charlotte, North Carolina. The chart below shows the slate of delegates in the order in which they were elected in 2019 for the 2020 General Conference. Positions have been adjusted due to deaths, episcopal elections and resignations, with the next person elected moving up a slot in each instance.

CLERGY	LAITY
General Conference	General Conference
Rev. Adam Hamilton	Oliver Green
Rev. Amy Lippoldt	Lisa Maupin
Rev. Dr. Kalaba Chali	Scott Brewer
Rev. David Livingston	Randall Hodgkinson
Rev. Cheryl Jefferson Bell	Dixie Brewster
Rev. Dr. Anne Gatobu	Dan Entwistle
Rev. Mark Holland	Jesi Lipp

South Central Jurisdictional Conference	South Central Jurisdictional Conference
Rev. Eduardo Bousson	Shayla Jordan
Rev. Ashley Prescott Barlow-Thompson	Esther Hay
Rev. Stephanie Ahlschwede	Open
Rev. Zach Anderson	Open
Rev. Andrew Conard	Open
Rev. Dr. Ashlee Alley Crawford	Open
Rev. Kurt Cooper	Open

Jurisdictional Alternate	Jurisdictional Alternate
None	None

Notes

Rev. Junius Dotson was elected as a General Conference delegate but is now deceased.
Rev. Dr. Dee Williamston was elected as a General Conference delegate, but was elected bishop in 2022.
Rev Nathan Stanton was elected as a jurisdictional alternate but is now deceased.
Lisa Buffum were elected as a General Conference delegates but resigned.
Rev. Ally Drummond was elected as a South Central Jurisdictional Conference delegate but has since been ordained.
Steve Baccus was elected as a General Conference delegate but cannot attend.
Abigail Koech and Joyce Jones were elected as South Central Jurisdictional Conference delegates but resigned.
Roy Koech was elected as a jurisdictional alternate but cannot attend General Conference.
Abraham Ruffcorn and Charles File were elected as a jurisdictional alternates but withdrew.