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By Linda Bloom*
7:00 P.M. EST May 3, 2011 | DETROIT (UMNS)
The United Methodist Judicial Council says it is not required to respond
to every request to reconsider previous rulings. A 2008 UMNS file photo
by Neill Caldwell.
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The United Methodist Church’s top court says it is not obliged to
respond to every request for reconsideration of a 2005 decision related
to whether a pastor can deny local church membership to a gay or
lesbian person.
In Memorandum 1187,
related to a petition from the denomination’s California-Pacific
Annual (regional) Conference, the Judicial Council noted that it has
received numerous requests to reconsider Decision 1032 “on its own
motion” but is not required to do so.
That petition was among those on the docket for the council’s April
27-29 meeting in Detroit. Other reconsiderations under discussion
included another look at an October ruling on due process for a clergy
member in the Baltimore-Washington Conference and a request related to
procedures in the Philippines Central Conference.
Judicial Council Decision No. 1032
related to the case of the Rev. Ed Johnson, the senior pastor at South
Hill (Va.) United Methodist Church, who was placed on an involuntary
leave of absence by the Virginia Annual (regional) Conference after
refusing to admit a self-avowed, practicing gay man into membership in
the church.
When the council ruled that the pastor in charge of a local church
has authority to determine a layperson's readiness for membership, some
groups and annual conferences protested, and opposition has continued
to the present. However, legislation filed in response to the case did
not pass when General Conference, the denomination’s top legislative
body, met in 2008.
In response to the California-Pacific petition, Judicial Council
pointed out that changes in the church’s constitution and Book of
Discipline since 2004 make any reconsideration of Decision 1032 “moot
and irrelevant” in regard to language about transfer of membership from
another denomination.
“Notwithstanding the apparent eagerness of The United Methodist
Church to continue discussing the topics that were at issue in Decision
1032, reconsideration of the decision itself is moot,” the council
wrote. “We cannot make a determination about the constitutionality or
legitimacy of legislative language on which the 2008 Discipline is
silent.”
In a concurring opinion, Jon R. Gray, a Judicial Council member,
noted that the court has been asked to review the decision at least 10
times. “In many instances, the requests were presented without factual
context and without the prerequisites necessary to confer
jurisdiction,” he said.
The council has no power “to rewrite portions of the Discipline at
the request of anyone who prefers different provisions,” he pointed out.
“Under our system of checks and balances, the General Conference is
the only appropriate body authorized to fix and define the conditions,
privileges, and duties of church membership.”
Angela Brown, Susan Henry-Crowe and Katherine Austin Mahle joined Gray in his concurrence.
Due process reconsideration
Officials from the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference asked for reconsideration of Judicial Council Decision 1156,
in which the council ruled the conference had violated due process
rights of the Rev. Helen Steiner Smith, one of its clergy members.
Conference officials cited several errors of fact in the decision.
Smith had been suspended from her position as pastor of Benevola
United Methodist Church in Boonsboro, Md., in May 2009 after allegedly
failing to carry out pastoral duties by not fully disclosing her
husband’s status as a registered child sex offender.
At issue was whether the conference had followed proper procedures,
as outlined in the Book of Discipline, in suspending Smith. In oral
hearings at both the October and April meetings, Washington Area Bishop
John Schol and other conference representatives, along with Smith and
her advocate, the Rev. Laura Easto, made presentations to the council.
In its reconsideration of the case, Decision 1189,
the Judicial Council noted that it does not make findings of facts nor
“resolve disputed factual issues,” and it could only base its
judgments on the official Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference
minutes.
Actions by the 2008 General Conference “made significant changes in
the leave processes governing changes in conference relations,” and the
council found that Schol did not refer an administrative complaint
regarding Smith to the conference board of ordained ministry, as
required. The conference was instructed to comply fully with the terms
of the council’s previous decision.
“We cannot make a determination about … legislative language on which the 2008 Discipline is silent.”
“Deviations from disciplinary process fall below acceptable
standards of fair process, even when undertaken in good faith or for the
sake of convenience or efficiency,” the decision said.
In a concurring opinion, Gray noted that the “candid admissions”
made by conference officials during the reconsideration “are worthy of
respect” but not a substitute “for adherence to disciplinary process.”
The 2008 Book of Discipline allows the bishop and district
superintendents to request an involuntary leave of absence without the
consent of a clergy member by presenting the member and the
conference’s board of ordained ministry with specific reasons for the
request in writing. The involuntary leave can be requested when a
written or signed complaint is not resolved within 120 days and is
referred by the bishop as an administrative complaint, the council
said.
Since Judicial Council issued Decision 1156, it “has become
painfully apparent” that some members in the church superintendency are
not making the required referral of an administrative complaint, the
new decision said.
The court is encouraging all annual conferences and boards of
ordained ministry to review such cases since 2008, to “ensure that full
and fair process” was followed.
Philippines reconsideration
The Judicial Council denied several requests for reconsideration of
previous decisions related to the handling of a complaint against a
bishop in the Philippines Central Conference and questions regarding
the 2010 session of the Middle Philippines Annual Conference.
One of the requests concerned Decision 1162,
which asked for a reconsideration of a previous ruling, in which the
council affirmed a decision of law by Bishop Daniel Arichea upholding
the validity of the Feb. 22-25, 2010, Middle Philippines Annual
Conference session at Wesleyan University in the Philippines.
A concurring opinion in Memorandum 1183
on the denial of reconsideration of Decision 1162 voiced concern over
the fact Bishop Lito Tangonan has been suspended six times since
December 2009 during an internal dispute within the Philippines church.
“We do not have a complete record of all of the matters in regard to
those suspensions, but from the information we have requested and
received, it is not clear that fair process has been adequately
provided,” the opinion said.
Because of “the lack of a complete record in regard to the
suspensions,” the Judicial Council does not “have authority to address
this matter any further,” the opinion stated.
Six council members signed the concurring opinion: Henry-Crowe,
Brown, Mahle, Beth Capen, William B. Lawrence and Jay Arthur Garrison,
lay alternate.
Other decisions
In other decisions made at the April meeting, the Judicial Council said in Memorandum 1186 that it had no jurisdiction in a matter related to the process of discontinuing a member of the California-Pacific Conference.
In Memorandum 1188,
the council reviewed two decisions of law related to the Rev. Edward
Paup regarding the constitutional right of a clergy person to trial.
The decisions, made by Denver Area Bishop Elaine Stanovsky during the
2010 Rocky Mountain Annual Conference, were vacated.
Full decisions from the April Judicial Council meeting, Nos. 1182-1189, can be found here.
*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at http://twitter.com/umcscribe.
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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