Section III. Central
Conferences
¶ 535.
Authorization--1. In territory outside the United States, annual
conferences, provisional annual conferences, missionary conferences, mission
conferences, and missions, in such numbers as the General Conference by a
two-thirds vote shall determine, may be organized by the General Conference into
central conferences or provisional central conferences, with such duties,
privileges, and powers as are hereinafter set forth and as the General
Conference by a two-thirds vote shall
prescribe.10
[FTN] 10. See Judicial
Council Decisions 470, 549.
2. There shall be such central
conferences as have been authorized or shall be hereafter authorized by the
General Conference; provided that a central conference shall have a total
of at least thirty clergy and thirty lay delegates on the basis of
representation as set forth in this section, except as the General Conference
may fix a different number. A central conference in existence at the time of
union may be continued with a lesser number of delegates for reasons deemed
sufficient by the Uniting Conference.
3. The United Methodist Church
shall have central conferences made up as follows:
a) Africa Central
Conference: Angola, Burundi, Central Zaire, Mozambique (Southeast Africa),
North Shaba, South Africa, Southern Zaire, Zimbabwe;
b) Central and Southern
Europe Central Conference: Austria Provisional, Bulgaria Provisional,
Czechoslovakia, Hungary Provisional, Poland, Switzerland/France, Yugoslavia
Provisional;
c) Central Conference
in the Federal Republic of Germany and West Berlin: German Northwest, German
South, German Southwest;
d) Central Conference
in the German Democratic Republic: Annual Conference in the German
Democratic Republic;
e) Northern Europe
Central Conference: Denmark, Estonia Provisional, Finland-Finnish
Provisional, Finland-Swedish Provisional, Norway, Sweden;
f) Philippines Central
Conference: Middle Philippines, Mindanao, Northern Philippines, Northwest
Philippines, Philippines, Southwest Philippines
Provisional;
g) West Africa Central
Conference: Liberia, Muri Provisional (Nigeria), Sierra
Leone.