General Conference 2012 Officially Opens
The General Conference United Methodist Church “officially” begins its quadrennial meeting at 3 p.m. CDT today (Tuesday, April 24) in Tampa, Fla. (Officially is in quotes because there have been preliminary meetings already this week and several months if not years of hard work, planning and debate to prepare for this historic moment in our denominations history). Most of you will recall that the Central Texas Conference was honored to host the 2008 General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas. 
While most of the attention and time spent during this year’s General Conference will be on the issues to be debated and voted upon (you can find and track the pending legislation here), the conference will appropriately open with a worship service today at 3 p.m. CDT. Dr. Mike McKee (photo left), senior minister at First UMC Hurst and the official 2012 Episcopal candidate from the Central Texas Conference, is leading our clergy delegation to General Conference and says that ahead of all other important and energizing experiences that await, he is most looking forward to today’s opening service.“For me, the opening worship service is always the highlight of General Conference, as I'm reminded of the oneness we share in Christ,” said Mike. “If I could encourage you to watch just one event from General Conference, it would be the opening worship service on Tuesday.” You can view many of the Much of the General Conference proceedings via live internet stream at www.gc2012.umc.org.
Every four years, as many as 1,000 delegates from United Methodist conferences around the world gather together for holy conferencing and serve as the decision-making body for the United Methodist Church. General Conference is THE OFFICIAL voice of The United Methodist Church – no other person, group or organization can speak for our connection.
To keep up with all the latest from General Conference, please visit the official UMC General Conference website. CTCUMC.org will provide a summary of the previous day’s activities on our General Conference page each day.