Judicial Council rules on apportionment question May 5, 2004 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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