 | This articleneeds additional citations forverification. Please helpimprove this article byadding citations to reliable sources. Unsourced material may be challenged and removed. Find sources: "Book of Discipline" United Methodist – news ·newspapers ·books ·scholar ·JSTOR(July 2022) (Learn how and when to remove this message) |
TheBook of Discipline constitutes the law anddoctrine of theUnited Methodist Church.[1] It follows similar works for its predecessor denominations. It was originally published in 1784, in theMethodist Episcopal Church, and has been published every four years thereafter following the meeting of theGeneral Conference, which passes legislation that is included in theBook of Discipline. The most recent edition is that of 2020/2024.[2]
The basic unit of reference is the paragraph, not the page, chapter or section. The paragraphs are numbered consecutively within each chapter or section,[3] 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 thebishops 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 ofThe Discipline, appears.
