Release #053 {2917}April 25, 1996
DENVER (UMNS) -- The 1996 United Methodist General Conference has declined a call to move the headquarters of the denomination's Board of Global Ministries by a specific date in the near future.
The 1992 General Conference had narrowly approved a move from the board's current New York location and authorized a task force to make a recommendation for a new site.
But that recommendation -- to relocate to Reston, Va., at an estimated total cost of about $72 million -- was rejected unanimously by the 1996 General Conference's legislative committee on general and judicial administration.
Instead, the committee offered majority and minority reports, which delegates considered April 25.
The majority report, which passed with one amendment by a vote of 584 to 354, recommended a delay in mandating a move from New York until General Conference 2000 "so that any restructuring of the general boards and agencies can be incorporated into the site relocation decision and a more economical site can be determined ... "
As amended by the Rev. Ernest Lyght of Westfield, N.J., the majority report declared that the standing joint committee of the denomination's General Council on Ministries (GCOM) and General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) should continue its assigned duties of reviewing the suitability of all locations of the denomination's boards and agencies.
The adopted majority report did not require the development of an alternate site proposal for the Board of Global Ministries.
The minority report, which failed by a vote of 400 to 558, would have required that recommendations of at least two alternative headquarters sites be presented in 2000. The same standing joint committee would have made those recommendations.
-- Linda Bloom
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