The United States has 54 annual conferences, supervised by bishops in 46 episcopal areas. A handful of bishops preside over more than one annual conference.
There are 75 annual conferences in Africa, Europe, and the Philippines, which are supervised by 20 bishops. Most of these bishops preside over more than one annual conference.
Annual Conferences are held at the conference level, like North Georgia. Ordained clergy and licensed local pastors all are required to attend theses annual conferences. For each church in a conference, the number of lay delegates is the same as the number of clergy appointed to that church. NFUMC has one appointed elder and, therefore, one lay delegate, and one alternate.
Jurisdictional Conferences are held every four (4) years, and are when bishops are elected. Each annual conference elects an equal number of lay and clergy delegates to jurisdictional conference. The number reflects the membership size of the conference. North Georgia has the most delegates.
North Fayette United Methodist Church is part of the North Georgia Conference (NGC), and the NGC is part of the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the US UMC.
The United States has a total of five (5) jurisdictions:
General Conference brings together all of the jurisdictions of the UMC every four years. Heretofore these General conferences have been in the United States, but as the United Methodist Church has grown dramatically outside the US, the commission assigned to pick sites felt that it was time to go international with general conference locations. As of 2016, 5.7 million United Methodists live outside the US, compared to 6.9 million in the US. Manila, Philippines was chosen as the site for the 2024 General Conference, the first held outside the US. The 2028 conference will be in Harare, Zimbabwe.
If you want to know about the world-wide United Methodist Church including membership, clergy, missions and ministries click here.
