Michigan Area Transition Proposal
Status of Proposed Combined Conference
On April 5, 2008 Bishop Jonathan Keaton called a special combined meeting of the Detroit Annual Conference and the West Michigan Annual Conference. The purpose of this meeting was to hear the final results from the Michigan Area Transition Team, to debate the merits of the proposal, and to vote on the proposed merger of the two conferences into the new Great Lakes Conference. This meeting was held at the Lansing Center in Lansing Michigan and was attended by over 1600 voting members from the two conferences. Reverend Tracy Huffman and Reverend Drew Hart attended as pastors from the Detroit Annual Conference, Judy and Bill Lynn attended as lay delegates of West Side UMC and Mike Rudd attended as a lay member from the Ann Arbor District.
For the merger to be approved it was required that each conference must vote approval by a simple majority. The vote must be either yes or no for the plan in its entirety, and no amendments were allowed. The Detroit Annual Conference did approve the new conference, but the West Michigan Annual Conference defeated the proposal by a very small margin. The vote results were:
Yes No
Detroit Annual Conference 651 (71%) 266 (29%) Abstain 2
West Michigan Annual Conference 363 (49%) 376 (51%) Abstain 2
There seemed to be a general feeling in both conferences of support for merging with the overall goals to increase the health of the local churches and to better realize our mission of making disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world. However, the 115 page plan of organization for this new conference contained provisions that many felt would need to be modified before being approved.
At this time it is not known what or when the next step will be taken in the proposed combination of the two conferences.