The Commission to Study and Recommend Action Concerning the Jurisdictional System was created by the General Conference of 1956, composed of seventy members from all six jurisdictions, and assigned the following responsibility and authority: to make a thorough study of the jurisdictional system, with special reference to its philosophy, its effectiveness, its weaknesses, and its relationship to the future of the Methodist Church; and, to carry on studies and conduct hearings in all the jurisdictions on racial segregation in the Methodist Church, and other problems related to the jurisdictional system. Finally, the commission was to develop courses of action directed toward greater interracial brotherhood and the spirit of Christian love.
The 1956 General Conference of The Methodist Church established the Commission on Christian Higher Education to direct the quadrennial emphasis on higher education. The primary task of the Commission was to strengthen the bonds that bind the institutions of learning to the church, to lead the schools and colleges of the denomination to a thorough commitment to Christian standards and ideals, and to lead the church in an effort to under gird the schools with adequate moral and financial support.
The Commission had several meetings and several sessions with various groups around the denomination. It reported to the 1960 General Conference of its various actions during the quadrennium and plans on how to integrate its suggested program into the work of the Board of Education.
The Commission on Interjurisdictional Relations developed the plan which abolished the racially segregated Central Jurisdiction.
Created in 1956 as the Commission to Study the Jurisdictional System, it was re-constituted in 1960 as the Commission on Interjurisdictional Relations. The records here constitute material kept by Leonard Slutz, the secretary for the North Central delegation of the commission.
The Commission on the Structure of Methodism Overseas, also known as COSMOS, was authorized by the General Conference of 1948 as a liaison group between the General Conference of The Methodist Church and the churches overseas that had come into existence as the result of American missionary outreach. All memorials for changes in relationships of the General Conference to the churches overseas were considered and presented by this commission.
In response to the changing world situation, the General Conference of 1964 authorized a study on how best to revise the structure and relationships between the General Conference and its overseas relationships. The outcome of the study helped to establish the central conference structure and further defined the relationship between United Methodism and many of its former mission areas which had now become autonomous independent churches.
The Commission on Worship was established by the General Conference of the Methodist Church in 1956. This Commission worked on both the Book of Worship and the Hymnal. In 1984 another Commission on Worship was established by the General Conference of The United Methodist Church. Sample liturgies are all that have come down from that Commission.
The Commission on Church Union was established in 1948 by The Methodist Church. Its purpose was to investigate overtures and proposals of union or merger with various other denominations. In 1960 it reported to the General Conference that "... the time had come to move forward with a drafting of a plan for organic union.' The Joint Commission worked on the Plan of Union. There was a report made at the 1964 General Conference, but the final vote and other matters were referred to the 1966 special session of the General Conference, where it was accepted.