wfn.org | Judicial Council to review 14 items on varied docket

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

July 25, 2000 News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202) 546-8722·Washington
10-71B{340}

By United Methodist News Service

Questions related to the structures of the Northern Illinois, Louisiana, and
Norway annual (regional) conferences will be among issues to be considered
by the nine-member Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church Oct.
25-28.  

The fall session, at a location yet to be determined, will be the first for
five members elected at the denomination's General Conference in May. 

In recent years, the fall sessions of the council have dealt with 20 to 30
docket items but only 14 will be considered in October. 

Two items from Northern Illinois Conference challenge the bishop's decisions
of law in regard to a new conference organization and to the establishment
of a task force to implement the new structure.

In a previous decision, the Judicial Council retained jurisdiction over a
restructure plan in the Louisiana Annual Conference while it was being
revised. Now the plan is being resubmitted with revisions adopted by the
conference.

The structure of a conference in Europe is at stake when a ruling from the
Judicial Court of the Northern European Central Conference is reviewed.  The
court's judgment is a response to a request from the Judicial Council, who
asked in an earlier decision for a ruling on the Norway Annual Conference
structure.

These structure questions account for four of the docket items. Other cases
coming before the court include reviews of decisions of law made by bishops
presiding over a session of an annual conference if these decisions were
then challenged and 20 percent of the voting body agreed to the referral.

A standard review of a bishop's decision of law in the Pacific Northwest
Annual Conference asks whether a motion affirming the goodness of human
sexuality could be adopted in light of the 1996 Discipline and the Judicial
Council's recent Decision 886, which says that annual conferences cannot
"legally, negate, ignore, or violate provisions of the Discipline with which
they disagree, even when the disagreements are based upon conscientious
objections to those provision." The decision affirmed that the Discipline
"is the law of the church" and regulates every phase of the life and work of
the church.

The Kansas East Annual Conference asked the court for a declaratory decision
on the constitutionality of the conference's amended "Policy on Sexual
Ethics for Church Professionals" and "Policy on Sexual Ethics for Lay
Employees and Volunteers." 

A review of a bishop's decision in the Iowa Conference session will look at
whether the bishop was in order when he ruled a certain motion out of order.
The motion was to amend the rules of order of the annual conference.

The Alaska Missionary Conference has asked about the constitutionality of a
disciplinary requirement that lay people who are serving on the board of
directors of a churchwide agency must resign from the agency if they move
their permanent residence outside the boundaries of the conference.

Alaska Missionary Conference also has asked if the following disciplinary
provisions apply to bodies of the church not created by General Conference:
that the program and fiscal year in the United Methodist Church be a
calendar year and that a quadrennium within the church starts on the January
1 following General Conference

The South Carolina Annual Conference has requested a decision on the
constitutionality, meaning, application and effect of a paragraph in the
1996 Discipline that describes the nomination of candidates for the
episcopacy.

Also submitted for review is a decision by the bishop of the Western New
York Annual Conference as to how a local pastor who is enrolled in seminary
should be listed by the conference board of ordained ministry: as a student
local pastor or as a part-time lay pastor.

The bishop's decision in West Virginia Annual Conference, stating that a
resolution presented to the annual conference that would have directed West
Virginia Wesleyan College to rescind its 14-hour visitation policy was out
of order, will be reviewed.

^From California-Nevada Annual Conference, come two cases regarding judicial
procedure. One relates to the bishop's decision about a paragraph previously
declared unconstitutional that contains disciplinary stipulations about
errors in judicial proceedings. The other also relates to a bishop's ruling,
this time in permitting testimony to the Committee on Investigation about
homosexuality and sexual orientation in general rather than restricting
testimony to the events of Jan. 16, 1999, named in the complaint.

President of the council is the Rev. John Corry of Nashville, Tenn.; vice
president, the Rev. Rex Bevins, Lincoln, Neb.; secretary, Sally Curtis
AsKew, Bogart, Ga.  The three officers, elected in May,  were members of the
council during the previous 1997-2000 quadrennium, along with Thomas
Matheny, Hammond, La. The five new members are: Rodolfo C. Beltran,
Cabanatuan City, Philippines; the Rev. Keith Boyette, Fredericksburg, Va.;
Mary A. Daffin, Houston; James Holsinger, Lexington, Ky.; and the Rev. Larry
D. Pickens, Chicago. 

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United Methodist News Service
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