Section V. Regional Conferences

¶29

Creates the regional conferences by name — including a United States regional conference, which did not previously exist.

2024 Discipline: ¶29
On the ballot paper: ¶28
Article: I
Change: Amended

Rewritten rather than tweaked — only 5% of the wording survives. Read the two texts side by side rather than the diff.

What changed

The substantive centre of the amendment. It establishes regional conferences for the worldwide church with powers “to be exercised equitably across the regional conferences,” then names them: one for the United States comprising all the territory of the five jurisdictions, and the existing central conferences, which become regional conferences. General Conference may change the number and boundaries afterwards. Note that the text fixes no total — it inherits whatever central conferences existed before the postponed 2020 General Conference, which is why published counts of “how many regions” disagree with one another.

Before

Book of Discipline 2020/2024, ¶29

There shall be central conferences for the work of the Church outside the United States of America with such duties, powers, and privileges as are hereinafter set forth. The number and boundaries of the central conferences shall be determined by the Uniting Conference. Subsequently the General Conference shall have authority to change the number and boundaries of central conferences. The central conferences shall have the duties, powers, and privileges hereinafter set forth.

After

Petition 21039, as ratified

There shall be regional conferences for the work of the worldwide Church with such powers, duties, and privileges as are hereinafter set forth, to be exercised equitably across the regional conferences, subject to limits fixed by the Constitution. 1. Initially, the number and boundaries of the regional conferences shall be as follows: a) There shall be a regional conference for the work of the Church in the United States of America that includes all of the areas that comprise the jurisdictional conferences identified in Division Two, Section VII, ¶ 37. b) The central conferences or provisional central conferences which existed prior to the postponed 2020 General Conference shall become regional or provisional regional conferences. 2. The General Conference shall have the authority to change the number and boundaries of regional conferences and provisional regional conferences.

Where it points

This paragraph cites another paragraph of the Constitution — and cites it in ballot numbering, the numbering the amendment was drafted against. Following the citation as printed, into the 2024 Book of Discipline, lands on the wrong paragraph. The text is left exactly as ratified; the translation is below.

As printed	In the 2024 Discipline	Which is
¶37	¶38	the five United States jurisdictions and their boundaries