NWTX Conference Vote
Northwest Texas Conference has voted its intention to withdraw from the United Methodist Church, but the Judicial Council has ruled that such separation can't take place until after General Conference sets up terms and condition for conference disaffiliation. (File photo)
UPDATED 3:30 p.m. May 10
In a decision characterized as “significant” for the future of The United Methodist Church, the Judicial Council has ruled that annual conferences may not withdraw from the denomination until after General Conference sets up conditions for conference disaffiliation.
The decision means that no annual conference can leave the UMC for at least two and possibly three years until and unless the next General Conference, set for 2024, establishes terms and conditions under which a conference can withdraw. The ruling applies only to U.S. annual conferences; the Book of Discipline lays out a different process for conferences outside the United States.
A summary of Judicial Council Decision 1444 reads:
“Under our constitutional polity of connectionalism, the question of annual conference separation from The United Methodist Church is a distinctly connectional matter. The General Conference is the only body that can regulate the process and set the conditions for an annual conference in the United States to leave the United Methodist connection. While an annual conference has the reserved right to vote on disaffiliation, the General Conference must first enact enabling legislation to establish the right to withdraw but has not done so for conferences in the United States. Decision 1366 cannot be construed as creating a self-executing right for an annual conference to separate because the Judicial Council has no legislative authority. There is no basis in Church law for any annual conference to adopt stopgap policies, pass resolutions, take a vote, or act unilaterally for the purpose of removing itself from The United Methodist Church. Absent General Conference legislation, any vote and actions taken by an annual conference to separate are unconstitutional, null and void, and of no legal force or effect. Since ¶ 572 applies only to annual conferences outside the United States, the process and requirements set forth therein cannot be viewed as minimum standards for any annual conference to separate from The United Methodist Church.”
The ruling strikes a major blow to the newly established Global Methodist Church, whose leaders have been campaigning for months for annual conferences to vote this year on leaving the denomination. GMC supporters in three annual conferences – South Georgia, Northwest Texas, and Texas – have said they want to leave the UMC immediately, but the Judicial Council ruling effectively kills such votes for now.
New Judicial Council docket item
From UM News
The Judicial Council has added to its docket a question concerning the legality of a Bulgaria-Romania Provisional Annual Conference resolution. The resolution stated that the annual conference “withdraws from and severs all ties, legal or otherwise, with The United Methodist Church as of 1 May 2022 and immediately becomes an annual conference of the Global Methodist Church… .”
Opening briefs are due June 13, and reply briefs on June 24.
See docket item.
Read Judicial Council rules and guidelines for brief submissions.
Longtime United Methodist leader Lonnie D. Brooks of Anchorage, Alaska, a perennial observer of the Judicial Council, posted his interpretation of the decision on Facebook:
“The United Methodist Judicial Council has taken one of the most significant decisions in its entire history, and it did so in record time. In its decision 1444 it has declared that an annual conference's right to vote to withdraw from the Church, affirmed in its decision 1366, may not be exercised until the General Conference has legislatively established the terms and conditions for such a withdrawal.
“It went further to clarify that ‘the right to vote to withdraw’ is not synonymous with ‘the right to withdraw,’ further stating that establishing a right to withdraw requires legislative action which the Judicial Council itself has no authority to take.”
JDC 1444 responds to six questions posed by the Council of Bishops in early April. The request for a ruling apparently were sparked in part by disaffiliation moves in annual conferences, including a video posted by Bishop Scott Jones of Texas Annual Conference. A Wesleyan Covenant Association supporter, Bishop Jones offered in the video to help conference members draft petitions to withdraw from the UMC.
The bishops' questions were:
Question 1: May an annual conference of the United Methodist Church ("UMC") within the United States separate from the UMC under the Discipline?
Question 2: Since ¶ 572 of the Discipline already provides a process for annual conferences outside the United States to separate from the UMC "to become an autonomous Methodist, affiliated autonomous Methodist, or affiliated united church," should the process and requirements of ¶ 572 be viewed as minimum standards devised by the General Conference for any annual conference to separate from the UMC under the holding in Decision 1366?
Question 3: Pursuant to Judicial Council Decision 1366, must the General Conference first act to establish the procedure and requirements for separation of an annual conference within the United States before a vote can be taken by the annual conference to separate from the UMC?
Question 4: If an annual conference within the United States takes a vote to separate from the UMC but the General Conference has not established the procedure and requirements for separation of an annual conference, what is the effect of the vote and what authority, if any, does the annual conference have to act on the vote and legally effect a separation?
Question 5: If an annual conference within the United States may separate from the UMC, what are the requirements under the Discipline for a separation, including, but not limited to:
- the bodies (such as jurisdictional conferences and other annual conferences in addition to the separating annual conference) that must vote to approve the separation and the required vote(s);
- matters of church law related to use of the name United Methodist, or any part thereof, use of the UMC Cross & Flame or other intellectual property, including the United Methodist Hymnal;
- maintenance of retirement benefits and compliance with civil law and the requirements of WESPATH concerning the same;
- compliance with any applicable state law requirements, including such requirements related to foundations, credit unions, title to real property, and the annual conference's articles of incorporation; and
- disposition of property held in trust for the denomination pursuant to the UMC's trust clause, such as endowments, designated funds (including funds for specific ministries of the UMC), cemetery associations, camps, historical records and archives, and any other property held in the name of the separating annual conference?
Question 6: Must any separation of an annual conference from the UMC provide dissenting members, local churches, districts, clergy, and affiliated entities such as camps, Wesley Foundations, and health facilities an option to remain a part of the UMC and join another annual conference?
The decision renders some of the questions moot for the time being, since an annual conference’s withdrawal from the UMC must wait until General Conference acts.
As of 2 p.m. May 10, no reaction to JCD 1444 had come from the Council of Bishops, the leadership of the Wesleyan Covenant Association or the Transitional Governing Council of the Global Methodist Church, the three parties most concerning with the facts of the case. This story will be updated as responses are published.
Separate opinion
From UM News
Judicial Council member Beth Capen issued a separate opinion concurring in part and dissenting in part with the majority in Decision 1444.
She argued that the Book of Discipline’s process to allow annual conferences outside the U.S. to become autonomous is not analogous to a disaffiliation.
She also said the majority opinion's framing suggests that annual conference disaffiliation is permissible under The United Methodist Church’s constitution and polity.
“I fear that some will form the belief that with the correct enabling legislation the General Conference can legislate a process of annual conference ‘disaffiliation’ without any constitutional amendments,” she wrote. “I submit that such a belief would be misplaced.”
Cynthia B. Astle serves as Editor of United Methodist Insight, which she founded in 2011. Additional information from a UM News report by Heather Hahn was added to this article.