Nashville, May 17 - The United Methodist Publishing House has published an Addendum to the 2016 Book of Discipline containing the changes to the Book of Discipline resulting from the 2019 Special Session of the General Conference.
The new text of each paragraph or subparagraph affected is included in the Addendum. These will replace the corresponding portions printed in the 2016 Book of Discipline, and should be used when preparing petitions to the 2020 General Conference. The majority of these changes will become effective on January 1, 2020 for annual conferences in the United States of America, and will become effective twelve months after the close of the 2020 General Conference for those in central conferences. The new subparagraph 1504.23, new paragraph 2553, and the amended Clergy Retirement Security Program (CRSP) became effective at the close of the 2019 General Conference.
Petitions passed by the 2019 General Conference that have been declared unconstitutional by the Judicial Council have not been included in this Addendum, as they have resulted in no changes to Book of Discipline paragraphs they addressed.
The Addendum also contains the most recent version of the Book of Discipline Errata, with other updates and corrections to the Book of Discipline made during the 2017-2020 Quadrennium. Further updates or corrections, if any, will be published periodically as necessary through the end the Quadrennium in 2020.
A previous edition of the Errata included changes to ¶¶ 408.3, 410, and 422 approved by the 2016 General Conference as enabling legislation, to take effect upon ratification of an amendment to ¶ 50 of the Constitution. These changes were also presented to the 2019 General Conference as part of the Traditional Plan. Although these changes were approved, the Judicial Council declared them unconstitutional in Judicial Council Decisions 1366, 1377, and 1378. The changes to ¶¶ 408.3, 410, and 422 have been removed from the Errata pursuant to ¶2612.2 of the Book of Discipline.
The Addendum and Errata are available at www.umofficialresources.com/updates
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Amy Smith, Communications
Email: asmith@umpublishing.org