Book of Discipline

The Book of Discipline constitutes the law and doctrine of the United Methodist Church. Originally, it was published in 1784 in the Methodist Episcopal Church and has been published every four years thereafter, following the meeting of the General Conference which passes legislation that is included in the Book of Discipline.
The Central Conferences of the church have by constitution the power to make rules and regulations for the administration of the work within their boundaries including such changes and adaptations of the Book of Discipline as the conditions in the respective areas may require.
The Northern Europe and Eurasia Central Conference has earlier published a full Book of Discipline, however, since 2012 we have only published a supplement, which together with the Book of Discipline forms the Northern Europe and Eurasia Central Conference Book of Discipline.
The supplement includes a Reading Guide to the Book of Discipline, adapted paragraphs, a Historical Statement of The United Methodist Church in Northern Europe and Eurasia, Minutes, and the Episcopal and Laity Addresses from the Central Conference.

The basic unit of reference in the Book of Discipline is the paragraph, not the page, chapter or section. The paragraphs are numbered consecutively within each chapter or section, but numbers are skipped between chapters or sections. The paragraph is often only a few lines, but many paragraphs are several pages long, and they can be divided into multiple subdivisions. Paragraphs are first divided using Arabic numerals (1, 2, 3,...) which can themselves be divided by italicized lower case letters with parentheses (a), b), c), d)...) which may be divided using Arabic numerals within double parentheses ((1), (2), (3),...)

Traditionally, a list of all the bishops with the year of their election is at the beginning of the book. That is followed by a brief history of the church, the church constitution and a statement concerning the doctrine and theology of the church. Then Social Principles of the church follow and finally, at the end of the book, you find the legislative section which is by far the largest part of The Book of Discipline.

Current book of Descipline:

The 2016 Book of Discipline

The 2016 Supplement Northern Europe and Eurasia

Addendum to the Northern Europe and Eurasia 2016 Book of Discipline Supplement after Judicial Court Decisions no 2023-1 and 2023-2 para 405 and 547

Addendum to the Northern Europe and Eurasia 2016 Book of Discipline supplement after the extra Central Conference, March 18th, 2023

 

Former version of Book of Discipline

The 2012 supplement Northern Europe and Eurasia