wfn.org | Judicial Council orders two conferences to cancel restructuring

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April 27, 1998  Contact: Joretta Purdue*(202)546-8722*Washington
{254}

NOTE: This story details two major decisions by the Judicial Council at
its recent meeting. For a complete summary of the council's 14
decisions, see UMNS #255. 

By United Methodist News Service

SEATTLE - The United Methodist Church's highest court has ordered two of
the church's annual conferences to cancel their plans for restructuring.

The Judicial Council ordered the Northern Illinois Annual Conference - a
regional unit of the church - to undo its restructuring plans. The
council ordered the Kansas West Annual Conference to do the same,
although the court commended leaders of that conference for seeking a
ruling on the constitutionality of their plan before trying to implement
it.

Those decisions were two of 14 made during the Judicial Council's spring
session, April 22-25. The nine-member council heard oral arguments on
four of the cases, including that of  Kansas  West.

In the cases of both Northern Illinois and Kansas West, the council
reminded the conferences that the church's constitution requires
enabling legislation from the General Conference for any restructuring
efforts. The General Conference, which meets every four years, is the
denomination's top policymaking body.

Many conferences have been restructuring their basic form of
organization in the belief that a constitutional amendment, passed by
the 1996 General Conference, permitted almost unlimited innovation.
However, last fall, the Judicial Council said the enabling process will
not be complete until the General Conference adopts further legislation
on restructuring. The council also reminded conferences that
restructuring must preserve connectional relationships.

In ruling Kansas West Annual Conference's new plan for structure
unconstitutional, the council said the projected restructure would
conflict with requirements established by the General Conference.

"The current annual conference structure shall remain in effect," the
council told Kansas West in its decision. The council also praised
Bishop Fritz Mutti for delaying implementation of the new plan, adopted
by the conference May 31, 1997, until the Judicial Council could
consider its legality.

Conference Chancellor Steven P. Childs made an oral presentation to the
Judicial Council. Immediately after passage in conference session last
year, Childs had proposed that the Judicial Council be asked to
determine the plan's compliance with the denomination's constitution.

The council cited four major problems with constitutionality and noted
that those didn't constitute a complete list. The problems are:

*	failure to preserve the connectional system;

*	conflict with the denomination's book of law, the Book of
Discipline, over hiring the conference treasurer;

*	the unauthorized delegation of legislative authority and
responsibility of the annual conference; and

*	eliminating the checks and balances system found in the
separation of program functions and financial functions.

The "Interim Model" of the Northern Illinois Annual Conference was
voided by  the Judicial Council because the plan - approved in the
conference's special session on Nov. 15 and implemented immediately -
had the same basic flaws as the Kansas West plan but with a different
construction and sequence of events.

In the Northern Illinois Annual Conference's special session, a
conference member asked Bishop Joseph Sprague to rule on the plan's
constitutionality. The question of law and Sprague's affirmative answer
were automatically submitted to the council for review, as are all such
rulings by bishops.

The council reversed the bishop's ruling. "The structure of the Northern
Illinois Annual Conference in place prior to adoption of the Interim
Model is hereby reinstated," the court declared in its ruling.

In its decision, the council noted, "The provision of the Interim Plan
creating the Executive Steering Team is illegal and invalid as an
improper expansion of the authority of the office of bishop and an
improper delegation of annual conference authority." The plan would have
made Sprague a voting member of the Executive Steering Team, which
consists entirely of appointees of the bishop. That would run counter to
long-established traditions that bishops preside over but are not
members of annual conferences, the council said.

"The Interim Model legislation does not refer to connectional
relationships at all," the council continued in its analysis of  the
Northern Illinois plan. "It does violence to the shared covenants
regarding structure that have informed our polity since 1968 [the year
of union between The Methodist Church and the Evangelical United
Brethren Church]."

The legislation also does not meet the requirements for new conference
structures outlined in  a Judicial Council decision last October. The
council noted that the decision had not been published at the time of
the Northern Illinois special session.

United Methodist News Service
(615)742-5470
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