Articles about the rulings of the Judicial Council in April and October/November, 2019.
By the Rev. William B. Lawrence
May 6, 2019 | DALLAS (UMNS)
[Note: This article raises serious questions about the decision of the Judicial Council in its ruling 1378 (Traditionalist Plan), while praising the clarity of the 1379 (Disaffiliation) ruling. The article itself is difficult to "parse" as it shows how difficult 1378 is to "parse." The core of the "danger" in 1378 is presented here. Read the whole article to catch the full force of Lawrence's argument! This chart, mentioned on another page, may have the most complete rendering of the text as it stands after the Ruling.]
On Friday, April 26, 2019, the Judicial Council of The United Methodist Church released two important and eagerly awaited decisions about legislation enacted by the General Conference in February. One of them is clear and helpful in the controversy involving local churches that want to leave the denomination. But the other is so densely written that it may actually obscure the dangers hidden in it.
The Mountain Sky Conference is conducting webinars for members of the Conference to learn about the decisions, the results, the followup, the consequences, and plans for the future.
Tuesday night, April 30, the webinar was called "To Lead Boldly in Uncertain Times." It lasted about an hour and a half. The meeting starts about 4 minutes, 45 seconds into this video. You can also see the Chat Log, which had some Q&A going on parallel with the video presentation.
Read more: After the Judicial Council: Understanding, Leading, Being Gounded
United Methodist News Service reports that the United Methodist Judicial Council has ruled that parts of the Traditional Plan and an amended Exit Plan passed at the Special Called General Conference of 2019 held in St. Louis in February, 2019, are constitutional. Read their story here.
"The United Methodist Church’s top court has found that while some provisions of the newly adopted Traditional Plan remain unconstitutional, the rest of the plan is valid as church law....
"In a separate ruling, legislation to provide an exit strategy for local churches wishing to leave the denomination meets three minimum requirements and thus is constitutional “when taken together with the consent of the annual conference” as specifically outlined in the Book of Discipline, the court said."
You can read the decisions from the Judicial Council here (Traditional Plan) and here (Exit Plan). Two summaries of the (now revised) results of the Special Called General Conference of 2019 are here (a blog post) and here (in chart form, modified to include Judicial Council ruling). Here is a simplified, summary chart of the decisions. William B. Lawrence, former Judicial Council President, provides A detailed analysis and warning.
Read reactions to: Judicial Council Rules Traditionalist and Exit Plans Constitutional
Top court meets in aftermath of GC2019
Here's a good overview of the decisions being made this week (April 23-26) in Evanston by the Judicial Council, the United Methodist "Supreme Court."
The United Methodist Church’s top court is poised to review actions taken in February during a contentious legislative session that still threatens to divide the denomination. ...No oral hearings are scheduled, and the court’s rulings will be posted on its website at some point after the session concludes. The April 2019 docket is short but significant.
General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly, in February passed the Traditional Plan, which strengthens enforcement of bans on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy and same-sex weddings.
I continue to call it the "Traditionalist" Plan, since it is not traditional. See this article in particular, and this bibliography for more on this plan. This whole part of my web site is focused on the backlash and aftermath of the General Conference of 2019, and the dilemma faced by United Methodist members, churches, conferences, and jurisdictions. -- Ben Roe