Author: Lonnie Brooks
Beginning on 23Oct18 the United Methodist Judicial Council will convene its regular session in Zurich, Switzerland, and the meeting will last for four days. There are 14 docket items before the Council at this meeting, and Docket 1018-12 is a request from the UM Council of Bishops for a decision on the constitutionality of the three plans for a way forward that have been generated as a result of the call of the General Conference of 2016 for the creation of the Commission on a Way Forward (CWF).
Twenty-six (26) briefs have been submitted to the Council by various people and groups, which is an unusually high number, having been exceeded only by the number of briefs submitted in the Jimmy Creech matter. These briefs have all been posted on the Internet and may be accessed using this link:
Briefs are in two broad categories. Any person is permitted to submit an Opening Brief in which he/she makes his/her arguments afresh. Following the round of Opening Briefs, any person is permitted to submit a Reply Brief in which he/she responds to the arguments presented in an Opening Brief.
A summary of the thrust of the arguments in each brief follows:
OPENING BRIEFS
Bill Lawrence on the One Church Plan (OCP)
Petition 4 contains an unconstitutional provision that inserts the bishop into decisions on ordination.
Petition 8 unconstitutionally authorizes an appointee to decline his/her appointment.
Petition 9 unconstitutionally gives a church conference authority that is properly reserved to a charge conference.
Petition 10 unconstitutionally relegates the power of an annual conference to decide matters of clergy character, conference relations, and ordination to the status of a recommendation.
Petition 13 unconstitutionally authorizes the bishop to limit the voting authority of an annual conference on clergy issues.
Bill Waddell for the Council of Bishops on the Traditional Plan (TP)
Petitions 8 and 9 unconstitutionally delegate legislative authority to GCFA
Petition 10 may also unconstitutionally delegate legislative authority
Petitions 11 and 14 unconstitutionally establish a minimum penalty in Church trials.
Jay Brim for Brim, Caterson, and Holland on the TP
The TP is not in harmony with the purpose stated in the call for the Special Session because it is not the work of the CWF.
Lonnie Brooks on the OCP
Petition 4 unconstitutionally puts the bishop into the ordination decision process.
Petition 8 unconstitutionally authorizes an appointee to decline his/her appointment.
Lonnie Brooks on the TP
Petition 10 –unconstitutionally requires an annual conference to vote to affirm or refute provisions of the Discipline
–unconstitutionally delegates legislative authority to GCFA
–unconstitutionally allows annual conferences to withdraw from the Church
–unconstitutionally authorizes GCFA to expel annual conferences
John Lomperis on the OCP
Petitions 3 and 14 Unconstitutionally violate the Restrictive Rule (RR) in ¶17 by establishing a new standard of doctrine.
Petitions 4, 10, 13, and 14 unconstitutionally delegate legislative authority to annual conferences to establish ordination standards.
Petitions 4, 10, 13, and 14 unconstitutionally violate the RR in ¶9 and destroy the plan of superintendency.
Petitions 13 and 14 unconstitutionally violate the separation of powers principle by transferring corporate power to individual bishops.
Petitions 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 11, 12, 13, and 14 unconstitutionally delegate authority to define marriage.
Keith Boyette on the OCP
OCP unconstitutionally undermines connectionalism by General Conference authority to annual conferences.
Unconstitutionally delegates legislative authority to annual conferences.
Petitions 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, and 13 unconstitutionally permit non-uniform standards of ordination.
Petitions 6, 7, 8, 9, and 10 unconstitutionally permit implementation of a ritual not approved by General Conference.
Keith McIlwain on the OCP
Petitions 4 and 6-13 unconstitutionally delegate legislative authority.
Tom Lambrecht on the TP
The TP is constitutional in its entirety.
Lonnie Chafin for Uniting Methodists on the OCP
The OCP is constitutional in its entirety
Nathanael Fugate on the OCP
The OCP unconstitutionally delegates legislative functions
Petition 8 unconstitutionally authorizes an appointee to decline his/her appointment.
Paul Fleck on the TP
The TP is unconstitutionally vague
The TP unconstitutionally establishes minimum penalties in trial processes
The TP unconstitutionally calls for a respondent to commit not to repeat an alleged offense.
Petition 16 unconstitutionally violates RR in ¶20 by, in effect, denying right to trial.
Robert Zilhaver on the OCP
Unconstitutionally violates RR in ¶17 by establishing a new standard of doctrine.
Unconstitutionally distributes authority for determining UMC ritual to entities other than General Conference.
Ryan Kiblinger on the OCP
Unconstitutionally establishes a new standard of doctrine in violation of doctrine established in Wesley’s “The Explanatory Notes on the New Testament.”
Tom Starnes for a Group of UM Chancellors on the OCP and the TP
The OCP is constitutional
The TP is not in harmony with the call for a Special Session since it does not call for Church unity
The TP in not in harmony since is did not come from the CWF.
The TP unconstitutionally authorizes the General Conference legislative to intrude into doctrinal matters.
The TP unconstitutionally authorizes GCFA under the authority of GC to evict an annual conference from the Church which violates the right to trial of the laity of the evicted conferences.
Tim McClendon on the OCP
Petitions 4 and 6-13 all unconstitutionally delegate legislative authority
The whole thrust of the OCP is to destroy connectionalism.
Tom Berlin on the OCP
The OCP is constitutional in its entirety.
REPLY BRIEFS
Neil Alexander et al for Uniting Methodists on the OCP
The Articles of Religion specifically permit and encourage (XXII) regional and temporal variations.
The Constitution itself guards against an imperial General Conference that tramples on the rights of other Church entities.
Lonnie Brooks reply to Lomperis on the OCP
OCP does not prescribe that annual conferences establish ordination standards but recognizes that the Constitution grants such authority to annual conferences.
Episcopal itenerancy is not destroyed or even threatened.
There is no establishment of new doctrine.
John Lomperis in reply to various Opening Briefs on the TP and the OCP
TP is part of CWF report
TP is not vague
TP in no way denies a jury trial to anybody
TP does not deny a constitutional right to a just resolution process because there is no such right.
TP provision for withdrawal of an annual conference is constitutional as established by the precedents of Puerto Rico and Sweden and the vote in the Philippines.
OCP unconstitutionally delegates legislative authority
Keith Boyette on OCP
OCP delegates distinctively legislative matters to annual conferences.
The authority given to annual conferences in ¶33 on the clergy matters is purely administrative.
Ken Carter for the COB on the OCP
Nothing in the Constitution directly addresses the matter of the practice of homosexuality
Tom Lambrecht on the TP
The TP is in harmony and arguments to the contrary are attempts to re-litigate issues decided in JCD1360.
The TP is not out of harmony on the call for unity, since the description of the charge to the CWF included exploring new forms of unity.
The TP does not offer new doctrine but perpetuates exiting standards of doctrine.
The TP does not authorize any entity to evict an annual conference.
The TP’s granting of authority to GCFA to withhold funds is the grant of administrative, not legislative, authority.
The TP’s authorization of annual conference withdrawal is constitutional.
Patricia Miller on the Connectional Conferences Plan (CCP)
The CCP is constitutional in its entirety.
Paul Fleck on the TP
A repetition of the Fleck arguments in the Opening Brief
Tom Berlin on the OCP
The OCP does not delegate legislative authority.
The Annual Conference, as the basis body of the Church, is authorized in ¶33 of the Constitution to make decisions on character, conference relations, and ordination of clergy that go well beyond administration.