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November 2, 1998
HERSHEY, Pa. (UMNS) – United Methodist annual conferences may not identify themselves with or take on the label of an unofficial body or movement, the denomination's highest court has decided.
"Such identification or labeling is divisive and makes the official bodies of the church subject to the possibility of being in conflict with the Discipline and doctrines of the United Methodist Church," the Judicial Council said in one of the more than 20 decisions reached during the court's fall session Oct. 28-30.
This ruling, which prohibits these regional bodies from adopting such labels as "reconciling conference" or "transforming conference," arose out of the Northwest Texas Annual Conference's decision in June to become a "confessing conference."
The conference's action was contained in a resolution titled "A Call to Doctrinal Integrity." During the annual conference session, the presiding bishop was asked for a ruling of law as to whether the resolution was in conflict with the denomination's constitution, "articles of religion" and "confession of faith" and other parts of the Discipline. He said it was not counter to these items as long as it was interpreted as a mere expression of the opinion of the annual conference. The Judicial Council disagreed.
In its analysis and rationale, the council noted that the Articles of Religion, Confession of Faith and the General Rules are protected from change, paraphrase or summary. It cited earlier decisions that specified that annual conferences do not have authority to change the Discipline, and one that stated, "A vote to approve implies the power to disapprove, and is therefore not permissible."
The council said that Northwest Texas Annual Conference had affirmed doctrinal statements in its resolution and in doing so violated the church's constitution.
"In declaring that an annual conference may not become an unauthorized organization, the Judicial Council is in no way limiting efforts by the conferences to pursue principles and causes, affirmed in the Discipline and by the General Conference," the council said. "Additionally, reconciliation and healing is a mandate of the gospel required of the whole church."
The decision marks a change in the council's thinking and led the justices to reverse an earlier decision giving the Wisconsin Annual Conference permission to become identified as a "reconciling conference" and one that authorized the churchwide Commission on Christian Unity and Interreligious Concerns to become a "reconciling commission."
The Reconciling Movement encompasses more than 14,000 United Methodists, 148 congregations, 23 campus ministries, 6 conferences and other groups which publicly welcome all persons, regardless of sexual orientation. The Transforming Congregations movement affirms "the Biblical witness that homosexual practice is sin and that the power of the Holy Spirit is available to transform the life of the homosexual." The mission of the Confessing Movement is "to enable the United Methodist Church to retrieve its classical doctrinal identity, and to live it out as disciples of Jesus Christ."
In another decision, the Judicial Council ruled that a statement in the church's SocialPrinciples prohibiting same-sex unions is constitutional. Declaratory decisions were requested by the Oregon-Idaho and California-Nevada annual conferences. Both conferences questioned the constitutionality of the sentence, "Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches." The statement was placed in the Social Principles by the 1996 General Conference, the denomination's highest legislative body. The Rev. Jeanne Knepper of Portland, Ore., representing Oregon-Idaho, presented the case for declaring it unconstitutional, in one of the three oral hearings held Oct. 29 at Rockville United Methodist Church, Harrisburg, Pa.
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