http://www.umc.org/decisions/59638/eyJyZXN1bHRfcGFnZSI6IlwvZGVjaXNpb25zXC9zZWFyY2gtcmVzdWx0cyIsInJhbmdlLWZyb206ZGVjaXNpb25fZGF0ZSI6IjEwXC8yNVwvMjAxNCJ9
VOTING RIGHTS OF LOCAL PASTORS
The Alaska Annusl Conference voted a request for the Council to clear up voting rightrs for Local Pastors with respect to upcoming elections to General and Jurisdictional Conferences. For some reason, the Council missed the timing of the question and responded by saying the request had nothing to do with the business of the conference and therefore took no jurisdiction. Questioners, it appears, need to point out the obvious for the very busy Council. In this case, the request should have indicated the need for an answer to help the conference know the rules for who can vote on what in those elections.
It seems to me that the Council needs to be reminded also that requests for declaratory decisions may be prospective, as this one was, without the necessity of being directly related at the meeting from which it may properly be brought. If a request seeks clarification of the Discipline, that should not be considered out of order to the Council
The whole matter of what constitutes moot, hypothetical, and jurisdiction issues needs serious clarification to help both the Council to be consistent and advocates to avoid the pitfalls involved.
However, the Council did quote the misprinted Disciplinary passage that cleared up the lines regarding which Local Pastors had voting right. That saved the day
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