wfn.org | Judicial Council rules on apportionment question

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

May 5, 2004 GC04-074

By Neill Caldwell*

PITTSBURGH (UMNS) - The United Methodist high court ruled May 5 that
unwillingness by a pastor to lead a local church toward full payment of
apportionments is not a chargeable offense. 

In the United Methodist Church, apportionments are defined as the funds each
annual conference or local church pays to support international, national and
regional missions.

The Judicial Council ruling's "Analysis and Rationale" section did state,
however, that any clergy member's "deliberate" encouragement of a church "not
to pay its apportionments in full, when the church is otherwise able to do so
... may rise to the level of a chargeable offense under Paragraph 2702" of
the church's Book of Discipline.

The council was asked by the General Conference to determine whether or not a
pastor's unwillingness to counsel his or her church to pay apportionments
constituted "failure to perform the work of the ministry" or "disobedience to
the order and discipline of the United Methodist Church," two of the
chargeable offenses listed in Paragraph 2702. 

The request for a declaratory decision included language in the Book of
Discipline (Paragraph 823) related to the "Proportionality" section of the
Episcopal Fund, which provides for salary of church bishops. (The
Proportionality section states that "the amount apportioned to a charge for
the Episcopal Fund shall be paid in the same proportion as the charge pays
its pastor.")

In its ruling, the council affirmed that the duties of a pastor include
"leading the congregation in the fulfillment of its mission through full and
faithful payment of all apportioned ministerial support, administrative and
benevolent funds." (Paragraph 331.2f) 

The decision continued: "The pastor of a church has an important role in
leading a local church to ... pay its apportionments in full, including the
apportionment for the Episcopal Fund, but the pastor does not carry this
responsibility alone. The pastor of the church is just one of many
individuals, lay and clergy, who have responsibility for providing leadership
to a local congregation and thereby leading a local church toward full
payment of apportionments. To hold the pastor of a church personally
accountable for a chargeable offense when a church under his/her leadership
does not pay its apportionments in full, including the requirement for
proportionality in the case of the Episcopal Fund, is unjust.

"The clear legislative intent of the list of chargeable offenses in Paragraph
2702 is to hold pastors accountable for their own personal actions, not the
actions of other ordained or lay persons."
# # #

*Caldwell is a correspondent for United Methodist News Service.

News media contact: (412) 325-6080 during General Conference, April 27-May 7.
After May 10: (615) 742-5470. 

 
 

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United Methodist News Service
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