Stay Tuned

by

Special to United Methodist Insight

I hope delegates had a good time in St. Louis because the $3.6 million spent on the United Methodist Special Session of General Conference may not make any difference in church law.

The Judicial Council may declare all action related to the Traditional Plan is unconstitutional.

On Monday, Feb. 25, The council ruled that 10 of the 17 petitions related to the Traditional Plan were unconstitutional. On Tuesday, the final day of the four-day assembly, delegates only amended one of those questionable paragraphs. Nothing prohibits a conference from passing legislation that is unconstitutional.

Delegates then agreed to ask Judicial Council for a ruling on their action.

Some people assume that only a few of the paragraphs will be ruled unconstitutional, leaving the rest to be repaired by the 2020 General Conference.

Those who make that assumption may not remember the 2012 General Conference in Tampa. At that time, Judicial Council did not rule a few paragraphs related to a major restructuring of the denomination to be unconstitutional, they tossed the entire plan rendering all action by that assembly to be null and void.

Judicial Council also has a record of viewing legislative actions in their context.

On the final afternoon, presiding Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey ruled that the Traditional Plan could not be divided into individual paragraphs. The entire plan had to be considered.

All of this may mean that Judicial Council, meeting April 23-25, may rule the entire plan is unconstitutional. That will leave everything in the hands of delegates to the 2020 General Conference. At that time an entire new group of delegates will have been selected by annual conferences, and that group may not like the early fall-out from decisions by the 2019 assembly.

Stay tuned.

The Rev. Rich Peck is a retired clergy member of the New York Annual Conference and a veteran of 12 General Conferences.