Reports of the Legislative Committees

1996 United Methodist General Conference

Church and Society (4/18/96, 4:30 p.m.)

The committee concurred with petitions:

• Substituting new text for Social Principles ¶71 D on divorce
• Adding a new Social Principles paragraph on Men and Women after ¶71 E
• Dealing with connectional relationships between the General Board of Church and Society (GBCS), conference, district, and local churches; membership on annual conference boards of church and society; and the purpose and objectives of the GBCS.

The committee organized into subcommittees with the following chairs: Lucille Vanzant, J. LaVon Kincaid Sr., Bruce Ough, and Paul Extrum-Fernandez.

The committee concurred with petitions:

• Providing for The United Methodist Church to send two delegates annually to the British Methodist Conference and for The Methodist Church in Great Britain to send four delegates to The United Methodist General Conference. (21053, p. 175)
• Changing the phrase, "persons with handicapping conditions" to "people with disabilities". (20309, p. 193)

The committee concurred with petitions (as amended):

• Suggesting that annual conference and district meetings be held in places accessible to people with disabilities. (20368, p. 190) [NOTE: The committee deleted all of the guidelines.]
• Allowing annual conferences flexibility in structuring while providing for connectional relationships between local churches, districts, conferences, and general agencies, and while being responsible for monitoring inclusiveness in the conference. (21617, p. 191) [NOTE: The committee deleted paragraph b];

The committee nonconcurred with a petition:

• Giving the effective bishops membership and vote in the General Conference. (20556, p. 175)

The committee concurred unanimously with the petition to adopt the newly published Spanish-language hymnal, Mil Voces Para Celebrar, as an official hymnal of the church.

The committee formed four subcommittees and appointed a chair for each:

• Structure, (Aileen Williams, chair)
• Doctrine, (Duane Sarazin, chair)
• Laity/Youth, (Larry Powell Sr., chair)
• Baptism, (Greg Stover, chair)

The committee recommended concurrence:

• Changing the name to General Board of Pension and Health Benefits from General Board of Pensions
• Authorizing changing to new wording regarding legal entities of the Board of Pension and Health Benefits
• Approving new language for permanent funds
• Replacing text of ¶1604 authorizing the activities of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits
• Updating language and placing a floor in the accepted level of annuity rates
• Changing "clergy" to "churches" to reflect responsibility of local churches to pay pensions
• Revising the Basic Protection Plan
• Deleting ¶2512
• Changing language from "persons with handicapping conditions" to "people with disabilities"
• Amending the Area Episcopal Residence Committee to allow other structures

The committee recommended non-concurrence:

• Funding of the General Board of Pension and Health Benefits
• Expanding the options of the Health Flex Insurance Program to gays and lesbians
• Inserting a preface to ¶2501
• Adding mandatory consultation by churches with other Christian churches when seeking a building site
• Reflecting the diversity of the denomination in corporate body of trustees of church institutions
• Mandating the annual conference or district board of 20trustees to conduct an energy audit
• Prohibiting sale, lease, or mortgage of annual conference property to benefit current operating expenses of the conference or local churches
• Asking for a task force to study salary equalization for pastors
• Prohibiting mortgage or sale of real property by a district board of trustees

The committee referred to a general agency:

• To General Council on Finance and Administration a proposal to establish a relationship with a major credit card company

The committee recommended concurrence:

• Supporting a permanent fund for mission work in Latin America and the Caribbean
• Urging participation in development and reconstruction work in Africa
• Calling for emergency assistance in rebuilding war-torn Liberia
• Supporting the peace process in Central America
• Deploring the continued occupation of East Timor by Indonesia and the abuse of human rights there
• Advocating work on peace and human rights efforts in the Middle East and North Africa
• Calling for development of programs on conflict resolution and alternatives to violence
• Opposing the building of a radar station in Vieques, Puerto Rico
• Supporting removal of all U.S. military bases from Okinawa

The committee organized into three subcommittees:

• Structural Relationships (Stefanie Gray, chair)
• University Senate and Seminaries (Myron F. McCoy, chair)
• Chaplaincy and Miscellaneous (Bradley F. Watkins, Sr.)

The committee unanimously voted to accept the document Education: The Gift of Hope and recommended that the General Conference urge every local congregation to study the document.

The committee also recommended concurrence on the following:

• DCA, volume 1, page 823, to amend ¶1511
• Number 21277. Standards for Endorsement for Ministry Settings. Amend the first sentence of ¶1511.2g
• Number 21274. The Division of Chaplains and Related Ministries. Amend ¶1511.1
• Number 21276. General Oversight for Clergy Members. Amend the last sentence of ¶1511.2d
• DCA, volume 1, page 821: Number 21662 pertaining to the Annual Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry. The committee rejected the deletion to Discipline ¶732. As a result, the committee then voted nonconcurrance with all other petitions dealing with the structure of the Annual Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry.

The committee recommended nonconcurrence:

• Number 20631 to delete words World Service from first sentence of ¶1512
• Number 21275 to change the language of ¶1511.2c
• Number 20479 to eliminate the Annual Conference Board of Higher Education and Campus Ministry

The committee recommended concurrence:

• Affirming Commission on Status and Role of Women or similar structure at all levels of the church
• Affirming the work of Gideons International but calling the organization to a more inclusive membership
• Adding local church and annual conference to advocacy responsibilities of GCOSROW re: resolution of sexual harrassment issues
• Affirming that tasks of currently-mandated Conference Commission on Archives and History must be carried out, but may be assigned to another structure than a commission

The committee recommended concurrence:

• Identifying children as well as men and women in a ministry concern that they be brought into a saving relationship with God
• Inserting the word "who" into the sentence "The people of God, (who) are the church made visible in the world . . ."
• Specifying that United Methodist pastors are not employees of local churches, even though they may be so classified for taxation and other governmental entities
• Defining clergy as deacons, elders, and local pastors under full and part-time appointment, and are licensed or ordained
• Defining "cooperative ecumenical parish"
• Changing "persons with handicapping conditions" to "people with disabilities" in describing specialized areas of ministry
• Changing term cooperative parish to "cooperative ministry" in section on churches in transitional communities

The committee recommended concurrence with amendment:

• Inserting a new section defining and outlining relationship between the annual conference and Ecumenical Shared Ministries

The committee recommended nonconcurrence:

• Calling for rejection of "exaggerated efforts" at inclusive language that deny ecumenical triune teaching
• Calling for a quadrennial study commission on Classic Christianity and Modern Feminism

The committee voted non-concurrence with petitions 21751 (¶116), 21757 (¶201), and 21758 (¶201), all of which deal with the Lay Ministry Steward in the Ministry Study. They also dealt with petition 21750 (¶108) and concurred with an amended version, which deleted references to the Lay Ministry Steward but retained language relating to ordained ministry.

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