The UMC’s Judicial Council has struck down as unconstitutional legislation passed at General Conference 2012 that would have ended guaranteed appointment for clergy. We’ll have coverage of this later, quoting those involved in the case. For now, here’s the decision, which has just been officially released this morning: JUDICIAL COUNCIL OF THE UNITED METHODIST CHURCH DECISION NO. 1226 IN RE: Request for a Declaratory Judgment from the General Conference for a declaratory Decision as to the Constitutionality of legislation Approved as Calendar Item 355 Regarding Guaranteed Appointments. DIGEST Security [...]
Read More...UMC-supported campaign seeks to bridge poverty gap
June 13, 2012 Posted by Leave a Comment
By Skyler E. Nimmons and Jessica Connor, UMNS… Delegates and visitors to the 2012 United Methodist General Conference had the opportunity to step away from their regular business and broaden their perspectives on the issue of poverty. From May 1 to 4, a poverty-immersion experience took place in a Tampa Convention Center ballroom. For two hours, participants took on the role of a low-income person through the looking glass of one month in that person’s life. The simulation was sponsored by the General Board of Global Ministries and the Rural [...]
Read More...Guaranteed appointment may stand after all
June 12, 2012 Posted by 5 Comments
General Conference 2012 may not have ended guaranteed appointment for ordained elders after all. Though delegates at the United Methodist Church’s quadrennial meeting voted to change one relevant part of the Book of Discipline, another was left untouched, apparently inadvertently. “It appears that there is no end to guaranteed appointments for elders under the 2012 Discipline, though the interpretation of the meaning of such appointment rests with the Judicial Council,” said the Rev. Fitzgerald “Gere” Reist, secretary of General Conference. Mr. Reist added: “Conflicts in the Book of Discipline are [...]
Read More...‘Wilderness of fear, distrust’ seen at GC 2012
June 11, 2012 Posted by 1 Comment
By Ricky Harrison, Special Contributor… The first night of the 2012 General Conference opened with a grand worship service. There were bright lights, cool graphics, beautiful music, abundant prayer shawls and a moving sermon. One of the most moving moments in the service for me was the sight of all of our episcopal leaders, in full vestment, processing behind the cross down the center aisle to the front stage, where the hundreds of active and retired bishops were seated for the service and most of General Conference. It was a [...]
Read More...New England delegation: UMC’s identity and unity must be spiritual, not structural
June 11, 2012 Posted by 4 Comments
Editor’s note: This essay comes from the New England Conference delegation to General Conference. And no one pours new wine into old wineskins. Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins, [...]
Read More...Don’t blame bishops for General Conference ‘fiasco’
June 3, 2012 Posted by 7 Comments
By William H. Willimon, Special Contributor… General Conference in Tampa made history as the most expensive ($1,500 per minute!), least productive, most fatuous assemblage in the history of Methodism. Sunday evening’s “A Celebration of Ministry” fiasco was a metaphor for our nearly two weeks at church expense: four hours of belabored supplication by the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women, five Ethnic National Plans, Strengthening the Black Church for the 21st Century, United Methodist Men, Girl Scouts, Africa University and a number of other agencies I can’t [...]
Read More...Dealing with ‘wounded’ United Methodist Church
June 3, 2012 Posted by 4 Comments
By Bishop Minerva Carcaño, Special Contributor… Many good things happened at General Conference. They did not necessarily happen through legislative processes though some of the good came through our legislative work. Establishing a global theological education fund to help prepare persons for ministry, our commitment to mission and ministry around the world supported by a strong financial plan, the commissioning of missionaries to serve in a great variety of settings, our continued commitment to U.S. racial ethnic plans, our ecumenical work, and certainly our Service of Repentance and our clear [...]
Read More...No, Bishop Coyner, Judicial Council didn’t do us a favor
June 1, 2012 Posted by Leave a Comment
By Lonnie Brooks, Special Contributor… Bishop Mike Coyner offered us, in the Reporter, his views on the impact of Judicial Council Decision 1210 that struck down the plan for restructuring the [...]
Read More...Q&A: A self-described fanatic for ecumenism
May 31, 2012 Posted by Leave a Comment
Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt Jr., the senior bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church, presides over the East Coast region for the 141-year-old historically African-American denomination. Long before his 2010 appointment to that post, he was known as a scholar and a leader in the Christian ecumenical movement. A former president of the National Council of Churches, Bishop Hoyt represented the CME Church at a celebration of Pan-Methodist full communion during the 2012 United Methodist General Conference in Tampa Fla. Earlier in the year he visited UM-related Duke Divinity [...]
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Judicial Council needs a change of worldview
By Joe Whittemore, Special Contributor… A few hours before the adjournment of the 2012 General Conference, the highly controversial Decision No. 1210 issued by the Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church addressed and overturned restructure Plan UMC, which had been approved by a 59.62 percent vote of the General Conference. This hasty council decision seemed more interested in protecting segments of the institution than finding ways to support the work of the legislative body of the United Methodist Church. On Oct. 28, the Judicial Council issued Decision No. 1226 [...]
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