JCD 1150

http://archives.umc.org/interior_judicial.asp?mid=263&JDID=1270&JDMOD=VWD&SN=1100&EN=1181

This Texas Conference case was carried over from the October 2010 Council session (JCM 1136).

At issue was whether or not an annual conference restructured committee (Core Leadership Team) could bypass the conference’s council on finance and administration and implement spending without first getting its approval prior to annual conference.

The Council said such a by-pass was contrary to church law, citing JCD 813 which says, “An Annual Conference cannot restructure in such a way as to constitute unauthorized delegation of its authority to a committee.”

The program in question was established to facilitate a down-sizing of conference clergy requiring appointment. The funds were used to facilitate early retirements. I thought this was a far better plan than having a Cabinet, as occurred some years ago in other conferences, simply tell all of the white male clergy over 50 that they were unappointable.

The decision in this Texas case reaffirmed the necessity of conferences to be careful in their restructuring so that responsibilities were not shifted from the proper Discipline-authorized bodies.