Puneet Varma (Editor)

Book of Discipline (United Methodist)

Updated on
Edit
Like
Comment
Share on FacebookTweet on TwitterShare on LinkedInShare on Reddit
Originally published
  
1973

Book of Discipline (United Methodist) centraltexass3amazonawscommGalleries122471B

Authors
  
John Wesley, United Methodist Church

Similar
  
John Wesley books, United Methodist Church books, Other books

The Book of Discipline constitutes the law and doctrine of the United Methodist Church. It follows similar works for its predecessor denominations.

It was originally 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 most recent edition is that of 2012, with the 2016 edition to be available in January 2017.

The basic unit of reference 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 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, then the church constitution, and a statement concerning the doctrine and theology of the church. The Social Principles of the church follow. Finally the legislative section, by far the largest part of The Discipline, appears.

References

Book of Discipline (United Methodist) Wikipedia