wfn.org | Communication commission requests ruling on meetings

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

April 12, 1999 News media contact: Linda Green*(615)742-5470*Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71B{196}

NASHVILLE, Tenn. (UMNS) - A United Methodist agency will ask the
denomination's supreme court to rule on whether the Council of Bishops and
annual conferences are required to conduct their business meetings openly.

The governing body of United Methodist Communications (UMCom) voted April 10
to request a declaratory decision from the Judicial Council on whether the
meeting policy found in the Book of Discipline applies to the Council of
Bishops and official annual conference organizations.

The Commission on Communication is sending the resolution to the church's
supreme court on behalf of the United Methodist Association of Communicators
(UMAC). The association, representing about 400 church-related
communicators, voted Nov. 5-7 to request clarification on whether the
council and official annual conference organizations are bound by Paragraph
721 in the Book of Discipline.

The problem of closed meetings surfaced at a Council of Bishops meeting in
Lincoln, Neb., in April 1998, a month after the Rev. Jimmy Creech was
acquitted in a clergy trial for performing a same-sex ceremony. Following
the verdict,  a clamor arose across the church, with calls for the bishops
to make a statement about their understanding of the General Conference's
intent regarding same-sex unions. The 1996 General Conference, the church's
top legislative body, placed language in the Social Principles section of
the Discipline, barring such ceremonies from being performed in United
Methodist churches by United Methodist ministers. 

Church groups also issued a call for the bishops to request a special
session of the General Conference to deal solely with issues related to
homosexuality.

Before the release of a pastoral letter on April 30, the Council of Bishops
met in four days of closed sessions to deal with the issues surrounding
homosexuality. The bishops said they felt the need for a closed session
"since it is highly unlikely the council could have arrived at such a
consensus if they had not been able to confer among themselves," said Bishop
Jack Tuell in a June 5 letter published in the United Methodist Reporter.

Many of the people who had been barred from the meeting expressed the desire
to observe how the bishops engaged one another on the homosexuality issue
and how they struggled with the controversy.

At the conclusion of the meeting, the bishops spoke about their model of
discernment and how they arrived at the pastoral letter to the United
Methodist Church.

The closed sessions prompted an editorial in the United Methodist Reporter
calling for the bishops to do their work in the open, comply with the
Discipline and keep future discussions open. The editorial drew support from
the United Methodist Association of Communicators, who voted to ask UMCom,
an official church agency, to request a decision from the Judicial Council
regarding the policy in the Book of Discipline.

All meetings of councils, boards, agencies, commissions and committees of
the church, including sub-unit meetings and teleconferences, "shall be
open," according to Paragraph 721 of the Discipline. Portions of a meeting
may be closed when dealing with personnel, confidential litigation,
security, real estate and areas of negotiation, it states. "Great restraint
should be used in closing meetings; closed sessions should be used as seldom
as possible."

In his letter, Tuell stated that the open meetings provision in the
Discipline is under the Administrative Order Section and is devoted to
regulating general agencies of the church. "Neither the Council of Bishops
nor the Judicial Council are general agencies. They are bodies established
by the Constitution of The United Methodist Church as coequal arms of
government of the denomination. ... So the Council of Bishops, carrying
oversight responsibility for the whole church, has situations arise from
time to time which demand a conferring together without representatives of
special interest groups or caucuses looking over their shoulders."

Bishop Sharon Rader, chairwoman of the Commission on Communication, said she
longs for the day the council can help church members "talk to each other
when we don't agree with each other."

"I believe the action by the commission is one that is seeking to enable
further dialogue about the open meetings policy and will help us clarify the
kinds of meetings and the nature of the dialogue which should be of a
private matter," said Rader, of Sun Prairie, Wis.

Bishop Joe Wilson, also a commission member, supported the board's action
but agreed with the position taken by Tuell.  

"Persuading and agonizing is a part of decision-making," said Wilson, of
Fort Worth, Texas. "There is a place for closed meetings. They should not be
all the time. They must be limited, but they must be a way for that kind of
(sensitive) dialogue."

The communications commission also approved a recommendation from UMAC that
several bishops be designated to meet with a representative group of
communicators about the issue. 
The group would explore such concerns as the role of bishops as spokespeople
with the news media; the value of open communications throughout the church;
and the relationship of the bishop to conference communications staff. 

In other action, the commission:

*	responded to a report from the denomination's Connectional Process
Team;
*	received updates on the promotion of the churchwide Hope for
Children of Africa appeal;
*	learned that three conferences have been selected to learn video
production for conference activities, mission initiatives, camping and
clergy recruitment;
*	heard updates for the "Igniting Ministries" campaign to get General
Conference to fund the placement of television spots about the image of the
United Methodist Church across the country;
*	learned that there are five finalists for UMCom's Racial Ethnic
Minority Fellowship (REM) - one from Nigeria living in Moscow; two from
Singapore attending college in the United State; one from Boston; and one
from Korea.
*	learned that the Indiana Area has been chosen to host the REM Fellow
from July 1 through June 30, 2000.
*	heard updates on the plans to revise Interpreter magazine and about
the study under way about el Interprete, the Spanish language magazine.

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