Your UMC GPS
The United Methodist Church is 12,719,550 members in 32,148 local churches on four continents. Could you find Heritage UMC in this great big United Methodist world of ours?
“I look upon all the world as my parish. In whatever part of it I am, I judge it my bounden duty to declare—unto all that are willing to hear—the glad tidings of salvation.”
The World
Every four years delegates representing all of the United Methodists across the globe gather for General Conference. It is a time to pray, discuss, and discern how the Scriptures should be applied to address the challenges facing people in the world today. This process of conferencing is then recorded and published to guide churches for the next four years in the United Methodist Book of Discipline and the Book of Resolutions. With General Conference cancelled in 2020 due to the global pandemic, the UMC is currently still governed by the 2016 editions of each.
Anyone looking at a map of the global presence of The United Methodist Church will notice some significant grey areas, especially in Latin America and Asia. The UMC does not have annual conferences in these areas. Instead, it has connections to affiliated Methodist denominations here and elsewhere throughout the world. The UMC maintains ongoing relationships with these other denominations, especially through Global Ministries and the Council of Bishops.
In most cases, these denominations have historical ties to the UMC and its predecessors but became autonomous, mostly in the 1960s. In some instances, formerly Methodist or EUB churches have merged with other denominations to form united or uniting churches. Four of these affiliated Methodist denominations have a special status as concordat churches. There are also many Methodist churches who are members of the World Methodist Council but are not affiliated denominations of the UMC.
This is a map of the UMC presence (including current mission initiatives), concordat denominations, other affiliated Methodist denominations, and affiliated united denominations. It offers another perspective on the global extent of the UMC. (Source: UMGlobal)
The United States
There’s no formal grouping or gathering of annual conferences across the country, though this common citizenship does produce an informal one that results in more frequent collaboration and collegiality.
The Southeastern Jurisdiction
The United Methodist Church in the United States of America is subdivided into five “jurisdictions,.” Jurisdictional Conferences meet every four years (the same year as General Conference), with the same delegates to that year’s General Conference in attendance. The primary work of Jurisdictional Conference is the election of Bishops. Every annual conference is led by a Bishop, and together (along with retired Bishops, as it is a lifetime election) they all make up the “Council of Bishops,” which gives guidance to the UMC on issues that arise in between General Conferences.
The Florida Annual Conference is one of 14 annual conferences that make up the Southeastern Jurisdiction, including:
The Alabama / West Florida Annual Conference
The Central Appalachian Missionary Conference
The Florida Annual Conference
The Holston Annual Conference
The Kentucky Annual Conference
The Mississippi Annual Conference
The North Alabama Annual Conference
The North Carolina Annual Conference
The North Georgia Annual Conference
The South Carolina Annual Conference
The South Georgia Annual Conference
The Tennessee-Western Kentucky Annual Conference
The Virginia Annual Conference
The Western North Carolina Annual Conference
Florida Annual Conference
Over 700 churches with more than 280,000 members from African-American, Anglo, Filipino, Haitian, Hispanic, Korean, Native American, Russian and Vietnamese backgrounds constitute the highly diverse Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.
The Gulf-Central District
The Gulf-Central District includes Pinellas and Hillsborough Counties, and parts of Manatee, Polk, and Pasco as well.
