WELCOME!

Associates in Advocacy now has two sites on the internet. Our primary help site is at http://www.aiateam.org/. There AIA seeks to offer aid to troubled pastors, mainly those who face complaints and whose careers are on the line.

Help is also available to their advocates, their caregivers, Cabinets, and others trying to work in that context.

This site will be a blog. On it we will address issues and events that come up.

We have a point of view about ministry, personnel work, and authority. We intend to take the following very seriously:

THE GOLDEN RULE
THE GENERAL RULES
GOING ONTO PERFECTION

Some of our denomination's personnel practices have real merit. Some are deeply flawed. To tell the difference, we go to these criteria to help us know the difference.

We also have a vision of what constitutes healthy leadership and authority. We believe it is in line with Scripture, up-to-date managerial practice, and law.

To our great sadness, some pastors who become part of the hierarchy of the church, particularly the Cabinet, have a vision based on their being in control as "kings of the hill," not accountable to anyone and not responsible to follow the Discipline or our faith and practice. They do not see that THE GOLDEN RULE applies to what they do.

If you are reading this, the chances are you are not that way. We hope what we say and do exemplify our own best vision and will help you fulfill yours. But we cannot just leave arrogance, incompetence, and ignorance to flourish. All of us have the responsibility to minimize those in our system.

We join you in fulfilling our individual vow of expecting to be perfect in love in this life and applying that vow to our corporate life in the United Methodist Church.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

If you have any questions or suggestions, direct them to Rev. Jerry Eckert. His e-mail address is aj_eckert@hotmail.com. His phone number is 941 743 0518. His address is 20487 Albury Drive, Port Charlotte, FL 33952.

Thank you.

(9/26/07)


Friday, July 25, 2014

JCD 1261



http://archives.umc.org/interior_judicial.asp?mid=263&JDID=1383&JDMOD=VWD&SN=1201&EN=1269

IS “A FUTURE WITH HOPE, INC.” A UNITED METHODIST AGENCY?

If you feel like you’ve seen the largest part of the text of this decision before, it is because everything down to the analysis is verbatim from JCD 1259.  It was copied to give this decision its full background and identification of the question being ruled upon.

This docket item comes back to the Council from the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference from the fall session where the Council said it needed to see the incorporation papers in order to see if the emergency agency set up to help meet the challenges of Hurricane Sandy in 2012 is an agency of the conference and therefore a conference liability.

The Council got the papers and ruled that while related to the conference by virtue of its officers and the funding being from the conference, the corporation was not otherwise organically related.  Legally, the funds and officers could be from anywhere according to the by-laws.  While the goals of the corporation and the conference are the same, the corporation arose to meet emergency needs of the conference.  It was time-saving to set up the administrative “costs of office space, accounting, and support services to be underwritten” by the conference.  While that makes the corporation seem like it “looks, walks, and quacks like a duck,” in fact the two bodies are legally separate.  There was no vote by the conference to be a guarantor of the corporation, which is the bishop’s key argument.  The Council upheld the bishop’s ruling.  The corporation does not fit the Book of Discipline’s definition of an “agency.”  While the corporation could seek funding from the conference beyond the administrative aid already promised, one fourth of funds raised would remain in the local church, and the conference could vote down such a request.

The Council warns that the relationship is so close that the boundaries between the corporation and the conference will have to be carefully monitored on both sides so that liability is not intermingled.  This is especially true because of the emergency nature of the establishment of the corporation.

See the concluding thughts below for further remarks.

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