Revised wording alters docket item for Judicial Council meeting
9/4/1998
WASHINGTON (UMNS) - Changes have been made in the wording of a docket item for the United Methodist Judicial Council's fall session, Oct. 28-31, in Hershey, Pa.
The change clarifies a question originally asked by the denomination's Board of Discipleship. The board is asking the church's supreme court to rule on whether the 2000 General Conference may pass enabling legislation that would become effective after the ratification of a constitutional amendment proposed by the same General Conference. If the court rules that such an expedited process is not allowed by church law, the enabling legislation would have to wait until the 2004 General Conference.
The ratification process usually takes about 18 months. Such amendments are submitted to annual conferences for a vote in the year following General Conference, then tallied at the subsequent meeting of the Council of Bishops.
Both the amendment and the legislation, regarding church membership practices and record-keeping, would be designed to implement concepts embodied in a churchwide study of baptism. The document resulting from the study, "By Water and the Spirit: A United Methodist Understanding of Baptism," was adopted by the 1996 General Conference and became a position paper of the church on Jan. 1, 1997.
In keeping with the theological concepts expressed in the baptism position, the 1996 General Conference passed legislation seeking to eliminate the terms "preparatory" and "full" relating to categories of membership. However, after the legislation was challenged by the Minnesota Annual Conference, the Judicial Council struck it down. The court cited a clause in the church's constitution that says all people are eligible for membership "when they take the appropriate vows."
The Board of Discipleship plans to submit an amendment in 2000 that would remove the vow-taking requirement. It would recognize that "all baptized persons, regardless of age, are members of the Church of Jesus Christ universal, The Methodist Church, and the local congregation," explained the Rev. Gayle C. Felton, who wrote the study guide By Water and the Spirit: Making Connections for Identity and Ministry, used in the last quadrennium.
# # #
|
Back : News Archives 1998 Main
|
Korean News
