Just as the Roman Catholic Church was shaped, in part, by the culture of the Empire, so Methodism in America was influenced by the democracy of the New World. In their beginnings, American Methodism and the United States of America created three branches of government: legislative, executive, and judicial.

Today, the United Methodist Church’s legislative branch gathers every four years for General Conference. Hundreds of delegates from around the world (half laity and half clergy) meet for a week and a half and do their business under an ecclesiastical constitution. The General Conference employs democratic ways and means to consider all kinds of legislative proposals, most of which edit the church’s Book of Discipline (though the church’s most basic doctrines are constitutionally protected from revision). The Discipline states in full how the church officially orders United Methodists’ life together, and that includes both doctrine (teaching) and discipline (government).

The bishops serving their episcopal areas and the Council of Bishops (composed of both active and retired bishops) make up the executive branch in the denominational democracy known as the United Methodist Church. Through their ministries, the bishops and the Council of Bishops are charged to advance by word and deed the decisions of the General Conference into the faith and life of the church. The Judicial Council functions as a United Methodist Supreme Court.

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