wfn.org | No Subject

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

Judicial Council says enabling legislation must follow ratification

Nov. 2 1998	Contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
{642}

NOTE: This story is a sidebar to UMNS #640.

HERSHEY, Pa. (UMNS) - The United Methodist Judicial Council has ruled
that the church's top lawmaking body may not enact enabling legislation
on any constitutional amendment until the measure has been ratified by
the annual conferences.

The United Methodist Church's supreme court has denied a request that
would have permitted the church's top lawmaking body, the General
Conference, to enact enabling legislation based on a constitutional
amendment that is proposed for ratification by the same General
Conference.

"In the event that an amendment to the (church's) constitution is passed
by a General Conference, it must be approved by the required vote of
annual conferences ... and the Council of Bishops, operating as a
canvasser of votes, must announce that the amendment has passed before
enabling legislation can be proposed," the Judicial Council replied in
its decision.

Enabling legislation specifies how annual conferences, agencies or other
church bodies may act upon a constitutional amendment or provides a
framework for change independent of other comparable bodies. Often it
sets required standards to be met and parameters for change. 

This question, in effect a request for a declaratory decision, was one
of 20 on the docket of the Oct. 28-30 session of the Judicial Council.
It was brought by the churchwide Board of Discipleship. The Rev. Gayle
C. Felton of Durham, N.C., represented the board in the oral hearing
Oct. 29 at the Rockville United Methodist Church in Harrisburg, Pa.

She stressed a need to bring the denomination's Book of Discipline in
line with the rituals found in the church's Book of Worship and in the
baptism document adopted in 1996.

The council noted that the 1996 General Conference approved a document
concerning baptism titled "By Water and the Spirit" and also approved
legislation to implement the concepts contained in the document.
However, in its fall 1997 session, the Judicial Council ruled that the
legislation violated the church's constitution and therefore it was null
and void.

At its most recent meeting, the council said that the United Methodist
Church is a worldwide denomination that has a method of adopting
legislation that must be preserved. The court said the Board of
Discipleship was asking for a provision of the church's constitution to
be abandoned.

Currently, constitutional amendments must be ratified by the church's
annual conferences before the General Conference can pass enabling
legislation. 

The Judicial Council ruled that allowing the passage of enabling
legislation before the constitutional amendment has been ratified could
be perceived by annual conferences as a directive to ratify. "It is,
after all, in the final analysis, their decision," the court said in its
response.

In a concurring opinion, council member Evelynn S. Caterson agreed with
the decision to deny an expedited process, but she differed in the
reasoning. She said the paragraph in the Book of Discipline, cited by
the Board of Discipleship, does not address the question and that there
is no paragraph that allows for such a process.

She suggested that the General Conference consider developing a process
that would offer an explanation of any proposed constitutional
amendment, including definitions of terms. The process also would
outline the implications of any proposed legislative changes related to
the amendment, she said.

# # #

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
Releases and photos also available at
http://www.umc.org/umns/