wfn.org | Re: United Methodist Daily News note 400

[owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)]

Reply-to: owner-umethnews@ecunet.org (United Methodist News list)
"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS 97" by SUSAN PEEK on April 15, 1997 at 14:24
Eastern, about DAILY NEWS RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (411
notes).

Note 408 by UMNS on Oct. 27, 1997 at 15:46 Eastern (7226 characters).

TITLE:	Church Faces Constitutional Issues

Contact:  Joretta Purdue  	599(10-71B){411}
		Washington  (202) 546-8722  	Oct. 27, 1997

Judicial Council voids 1996 membership legislation;
also cites constitution on conference restructuring

	SAN ANTONIO, Texas (UMNS) -- The United Methodist Judicial Council, citing
conflict with the church's constitution, has struck down 1996 legislation
regarding membership and declared that annual conferences must maintain
connectional relationships. 	Meeting here Oct. 22-24, the council -- the
church's equivalent of a supreme court -- nullified legislation that was
adopted to bring the church into accord with the findings of an eight-year
study on baptism.
	Declaring several paragraphs in the church's 1996 Discipline -- book of law
-- to be in violation of the denomination's constitution, the Judicial Council
essentially rolled back the rules governing membership to those found in the
1992 Discipline. 	The council also directed that church membership rolls be
kept in accordance with the 1992 requirements.
	The council was responding to a request from the Minnesota Annual (regional)
Conference for a declaratory decision when the council looked at the 1996
legislative changes that had accompanied a report titled "By Water and the
Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding on Baptism."
	The Minnesota Conference had included 18 questions in its request. 
	In offering analysis, the Judicial Council noted that the 1996 legislation
provided for parents or others to answer for those who are not able, but the
church's constitutional requirement that people take appropriate vows to
become members of the United Methodist Church was not altered. 
	Voting rights of members were also an issue, in that the 1996 rules still
gave voting rights to "full members," but the changes that year had wiped away
the definition of that term.
	The Rev. Susan T. Henry-Crowe, a member of the council, wrote a concurring
agreement citing a historical shift in understanding membership. She said,
"The meaning of membership is then not only a sacramental issue but also has
implications for our polity and matters of governance." She was joined in that
opinion by the Rev. C. Rex Bevins.
	In another major decision that also included constitutional issues, the
Judicial Council responded to a request from the churchwide Board of
Discipleship by declaring that a conference board of laity or other equivalent
structure is a mandatory part of an annual conference structure.
	According to the Discipline, the council said, such a conference board or its
equivalent must provide for the functions and connectional relationships
assigned to it by the General Conference -- the denomination's highest
legislative body.
	In giving the rationale on this issue, the council said there is no General
Conference legislation adopted that enables an Annual Conference to
restructure in accordance with a constitutional amendment "to allow the annual
conferences to utilize structures unique to their mission, other mandated
structures not withstanding."
	The council further noted in a set of guidelines for conference
restructuring, "Neither an annual conference nor the General Conference can
take action until passage, ratification and effective date of a constitutional
amendment."
	The council added that annual conference restructuring based on amending the
Constitution must await General Conference passage of "appropriate enabling
legislation."
	The Judicial Council also pointed out that any General Conference enabling
legislation must preserve the connectional system because the General
Conference has "a constitutional duty" to provide the structure and
organization for functions and connectional relationships between churchwide
boards and agencies and the annual conference, district and local church.
	In two of the 13 items on the council's fall docket, conference policies
dealing with sexual ethics or misconduct from the North Alabama Annual
Conference and the North Georgia Annual Conference were remanded to the
conferences for revision. Sally Curtis AsKew, who is married to a clergy
member of the North Georgia Conference, took no part in the latter discussion
or decision.
	A clergy sexual ethics policy from the West Ohio Annual Conference, first
remanded for revision in the council's fall 1996 session and the subject of an
oral hearing at the council's spring 1997 session, was accepted as amended. A
requirement that knowledge of sexual misconduct from "confidential
confidences" had to be reported to a district superintendent or bishop had
been deleted to eliminate conflict with the Discipline.
	The council was split in trying to reach consensus in reviewing a bishop's
ruling in the 1997 session of the Central Texas Annual Conference. 
	This case involves the bishop's ruling that five questions put to him in the
1997 annual conference relating to whether fair process was followed in the
surrender of a clergyman's credentials were not questions of law. A majority
of the nine council members decided to ask the bishop, conference board of
ordained ministry and the clergyman to supply more information.
	In a dissenting opinion, the Rev. John G. Corry said that he believed the
facts showed that the clergyman was denied fair process. In another dissent on
the same case, Evelynn S. Caterson said she believed the council could rule on
the question of law presented to the bishop without having additional
information because she is of the opinion that the questions as asked were
hypothetical.
	The council, responding to a question from the South Carolina Annual
Conference, replied that the Discipline reference to "full-time and part-time
pastors" includes, among others, both ordained elders and deacons in full
connection.
	A case from the Philippines Central Conference resulted in affirming a
bishop's ruling that petitions from the five annual conferences of Baguio
Episcopal Area requesting that the Philippines Central Conference become an
affiliated autonomous 
church were out of order.
	Another case -- involving "fair process" questions asked in the West Michigan
Annual Conference -- resulted in affirmation of the bishop's ruling that the
questions were hypothetical.
	The council, in looking at a case where fair process in the North Central New
York Annual Conference was in question, said that all action taken by the
conference in regard to the clergyperson's conference relationship was null
and void. The council retained jurisdiction on the matter "until the proper
disciplinary process is completed." 
	In other action, the council ruled:
	* that action in the Wyoming Annual Conference to eliminate honoraria for
clergy serving in conference positions was not prohibited by the Discipline; 
	* that the bishop of Central Pennsylvania Conference  correctly ruled on the
placement of camp program expenses in the conference benevolence budget; 
	* that in retroactively compensating a clergyman for a year in which he did
not receive an appointment as a result of a flawed grievance, the Alabama West
Florida Annual Conference must pay equitable salary and other benefits
provided to the other clergy under appointment that year.
	#  #  #
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------

 To make suggestions or give your comments, send a note to 
 umns@ecunet.org or Susan_Peek@ecunet.org

 This article sent to both the umethnews list <umethnews-request@ecunet.org>
 and also to the Worldwide Faith News list wfn-news <majordomo@wfn.org>
 Look at the header files to figure out which this is.

-----------------------------------------------------------------------------