A Future with a History
implied imperialism that may remain from the past. Another dynamic of a growing church put a more severe strain on the 1995 General Conference. Clergy and lay delegates of annual and provisional conferences in the world church made up 30 percent of the General Conference body. Yet their preparation for the issues before the conference proved to be inadequate, and participation in the discussions fell far short of the numbers. Neither problem was intentional; both problems are fixable. In the case of inadequate preparation, the timeliness of mailing to all delegates faltered on international delays and local processing, especially where understanding of the issues required translation into the language and idiom of the local culture. In some cases, international representatives did not receive the delegate's working manual until they arrived on the General Conference grounds. Regrettably, then, when the resolutions of the General Conference came to committees or to plenary sessions, the international representatives had to rely on translators to communicate the essence of the issues and interpret the course of the debate. Frustration arose and participation fell as many overseas delegates felt disenfranchised in an honored role from which they expected so much. As the world church continues to grow in numbers, annual conferences multiply and general conferences are added, further adjustments will have to be made in the organizational structure and governance process to assure the principle of equality that is so fundamental to Free Methodism -past, present and future.
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