wfn.org | Attacks against Bishop Martinez must stop, Nebraskans told

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 10, 1998	Contact: Thomas S. McAnally*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.        {356}

By United Methodist News Service

Slanderous attacks, unwarranted complaints, abusive letters and phone
calls and violent threats against Nebraska Bishop Joel Martinez must
stop, members of Nebraska Conference of the United Methodist Church
meeting in Lincoln June 2-5 were told by the chairman of the area's
Episcopacy Committee.

"Friends, it's got to stop and the time is now," the Rev. Rex Bevins
told more than 800 clergy and lay delegates meeting at Nebraska Wesleyan
University.

Pointing to difficulties faced by Martinez during the past year,
particularly related to the clergy trial of the Rev. Jimmy Creech,
Bevins said pastors who have taken their criticisms and complaints
directly to the secular press have "undermined the mission and ministry
of every local church in the conference."

Bevins is a member of the church's nine-member Judicial Council which is
expected to rule on matters related to the Creech trial in August.
Bevins also received a substantial number of votes for the office of
bishop at the most recent meeting of the church's eight-state South
Central Jurisdiction in 1996.  Presently he is pastor of St. Paul United
Methodist Church in Lincoln.

In March, Creech was narrowly acquitted of disobeying the discipline and
order of the church after he performed a union ceremony for two women.
Martinez placed the Omaha pastor on leave but reinstated him to the
pulpit of First Church  immediately after his acquittal.  However,
Creech was not re-appointed when all annual clergy appointments were
made this spring.  Although offered another appointment within the
conference, Creech declined and is now on leave, residing in his home
state of North Carolina.

Pointing to  authority of Roman Catholic leadership, Bevins said, "this
year some Nebraska Methodists wanted our bishop to be a pope."

To the complaint of some that Martinez should have acted immediately to
punish Creech and remove him from First Church, Bevins said, "A pope
would have the authority to do that, I suppose, but a United Methodist
bishop doesn't."

While United Methodist bishops are charged with the responsibility to
lead and oversee the spiritual and administrative affairs of the church,
Bevins said the denomination's structure provides a decentralized form
of administration in which certain powers and responsibilities are given
to representative conference boards and agencies which make their
recommendations directly to the annual conference.

Bevins said a United Methodist bishop does not have the authority to
change the recommendations of boards and agencies or to overturn them
once the annual conference has approved them.

"For instance, a United Methodist bishop does not have the authority to
overturn a decision of the Clergy Session regarding ministerial orders,"
Bevins continued.  "Yet a complaint has been filed against Bishop
Martinez largely because he failed to intervene in this way."

"United Methodist bishops do not have the authority or power that most
of us think they have," Bevins observed.

Because of his work on the Judicial Council, Bevins said he is aware
that some United Methodist bishops "try to act like popes, employing an
autocratic style of leadership, but thank goodness Joel Martinez isn't
one of them."

He praised Martinez as a leader who uses his delegated authority with
care and humility.  "Bishop Martinez bends over backwards to be fair and
just in his administration of conference matters."  He also credited the
bishop with getting matters related to the Creech case on the docket of
the Judicial Council at a special session in Dallas August 7-8.

The church's "Supreme Court" has been asked for a declaratory decision
on the legal status of the church's Social Principles.  The church's
most recentl General Conference, meeting in 1996, added a statement to
the principles against clergy performing same-sex union ceremonies.  The
unresolved issue is whether the Social Principles are church law and
whether violation of those principles can be chargeable offenses against
clergy.  The Nebraska jury in the Creech case voted eight to five that
he violated the order and discipline of the church but nine votes are
needed in a church trial for conviction.
# # #

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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