wfn.org | Judicial Council to consider questions on age, term limits

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

Jan. 13, 1999	Contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
10-21-71B{020}

By United Methodist News Service

The United Methodist Judicial Council's spring docket includes a topic that
will strike close to home for members: age limits. The church's supreme
court will also look at term limits on general agency executives. 

Those issues are among eight items that the Judicial Council will consider
when it meets April 21-24 in Orlando, Fla.

The Tennessee Annual (regional) Conference has asked the court to decide on
the legality of a rule limiting service on the Judicial Council. Under the
requirement, a council member's term ends at the conclusion of the regular
session of General Conference following his or her 70th birthday, if the
birthday preceded the first day of that General Conference session. The rule
stipulates that this occurs regardless of the date the person's current term
expires.

General Conference is the highest legislative assembly of the denomination
and will meet next in the year 2000. The current legislation on council
members' age limits dates back at least to the 1968 Book of Discipline,
published when the Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist churches
merged.

The Judicial Council will deal with term limits when it considers a question
about the constitutionality and application of legislation limiting
churchwide elected program staff to 12 years in the same position. The
General Conference passed this rule in 1988, so an executive's years prior
to Jan. 1, 1989, are not counted. The Discipline paragraph also provides
that "the agency responsible for the election of such staff may annually
suspend this provision by a two-thirds ballot vote." The question has been
raised by the church's Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

The Board of Discipleship is seeking reconsideration of the council's
decision that enabling legislation cannot be passed by the same General
Conference that passes the constitutional amendment on which that
legislation is based. The board has sought the ruling in an effort to
shorten the time required to make changes in membership rules in light of
the 1996 adoption of a statement on baptism.

Also scheduled is a review of Bishop C. Joseph Sprague's decision of law
during last year's Northern Illinois Annual Conference. The bishop ruled on
the removal of descriptive references from the conference's compilation of
its churches and official organizations. A second part of this docket item
deals with the bishop's decision of law on what is included in the term
"official bodies of the church."

Also slated for review is the bishop's decision on the legality of a special
clergy session of the Northern Illinois Annual Conference. This item was
deferred from the Judicial Council's October session.

Denominational rules require that the Judicial Council review all decisions
of law made by a bishop during sessions of the annual conference. 

Likewise, the California-Nevada Annual Conference has submitted a decision
of law by Bishop Melvin G. Talbert regarding the inclusiveness of the
church. 

Back for another look is the California-Pacific Annual Conference's amended
clergy sexual ethics policy.

A former probationary member from the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference
has asked the Judicial Council to review a decision of the Northeastern
Jurisdictional Committee on Appeals. The committee had ruled that it did not
have jurisdiction to hear the probationary member's appeal.

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United Methodist News Service
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