wfn.org | Judicial Council Sets Docket

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3114 notes).

Note 3114 by UMNS on Aug. 8, 1996 at 16:19 Eastern (3349 characters).

SEARCH:   Judicial, docket, clergy, compensation, harassment,
               misconduct
Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue                          400(10-71){3114}
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722            Aug. 8, 1996

October meeting of Judicial Council
to decide referred clergy salary question

                 by United Methodist News Service

     The United Methodist Church's Judicial Council will decide
this fall if new General Conference legislation passed in April
allowing the annual conferences to set a compensation package
conflicts with Discipline passages that designate salary
determination to the charge conferences.
     Fourteen docket items are before the council -- the Supreme
Court of the church -- when the council convenes Oct. 23-26 in
Jackson, Miss.
     The clergy compensation question is a referral from the 1996
General Conference, which met in Denver in April. A potential
conflict was perceived between adoption of amendments to one
paragraph of the Discipline and the content of two other
paragraphs.
     Rulings of the Bishop in the Iowa Annual Conference
constitute four of the items. These decisions concern procedures
related to a clergy member's suspension and trial, definitions in
matters of clergy ineffectiveness, authority of the clergy session
in matters of changes in conference relations and ratification of
a ruling of a trial court.
     West Ohio Annual Conference has requested a declaratory
decision as to whether its resolution entitled "Confidentiality
and Responsibility for Addressing Sexual Misconduct and
Harassment" violates a rule charging all ordained ministers of the
denomination with maintaining all confidences including
confessional confidences.
     The Judicial Council will review a decision by the bishop
presiding in the Peninsula-Delaware Conference regarding the
constitutionality of "mission area ministries" adopted as part of
a resolution entitled "A Call to Change."
     A sexual misconduct policy adopted by the Tennessee Annual
Conference was referred to the council for the upcoming session.
     Two docket items originated in the Southwest Texas
Conference. One concerns whether the standards for clergy
associate members may be applied to lay members. The other item
relates to whether a person may be denied a leadership role or
participation in activities and programs of the church in light of
the church's constitution and Book of Discipline.
     From the Minnesota Annual Conference come questions about the
validity of voluntary surrender of credentials of a clergy member.
     The council also will review the referral by the bishop of
the Philippines Central Conference of the petition for autonomous
structure to the central conference for final decision.
     The legality of the Wisconsin Annual Conference bishop's
ruling in regard to the conference's adoption of a resolution to
become a reconciling conference is to be decided by the Judicial
Council.
     From the New York Annual Conference comes the bishop's
decision about the transfer of two conference churches to the
Wyoming Annual Conference.
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