Brief for Docket 1021-23

Submitted April 8, 2022

Rev. David Horton Elder, Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church

Leadership Team
Rev. Dr. John Stephens, Elder, Texas Annual Conference Rev. Emily Chapman, Elder, Texas Annual Conference Rev. Lindsay Kirkpatrick, Elder, Texas Annual Conference Mr. Sidney Earnheart, Laity, Texas Annual Conference

Summary
This brief calls for a ruling by Judicial Council that annual conferences in the United States may not separate from the UMC. The following realities summarize this position:

1. Annual conference disaffiliation is fundamentally a connectional matter, and General Conference has full legislative power over all matters distinctively connectional. Therefore, General Conference must act to establish requirements and procedures for annual conferences in the United States to separate from the UMC for a disaffiliation vote to be effective.

2. Jurisdictional conference has the power to establish the names, number, and boundaries of the annual conferences in the United States. Therefore, an annual conference may not separate from the UMC without the approval of the jurisdictional conference.

3. Lay delegates to the annual conference may not vote on the conference relations of clergy, and to separate an annual conference from the UMC would change the conference relations of the clergy yet also would require votes cast by lay delegates. Therefore, General Conference must act to establish voter eligibility for a vote that would separate an annual conference from the UMC.

4. Judicial Council decision 1366 substantiates the theory of annual conference disaffiliation but does not constitute legislation. Therefore, Decision 1366 may not be considered an authoritative pathway for annual conference disaffiliation.

5. The provisions of ¶572 do not apply to annual conferences in the United States. Therefore, General Conference must establish requirements and procedures for annual conferences in the United States to disaffiliate for a disaffiliation vote to be effective.

6. The trust clause in ¶2503 requires the General Conference and the annual conference to authorize and declare the use of property held in trust for United Methodist ministry, and to date, the General Conference has not authorized and declared any alternative use for properties under the trust clause. Therefore, the General Conference must act to supply an alternative use for United Methodist property for an annual conference to claim any such property it does not own for use outside of United Methodist ministry.

7. In a future when annual conference disaffiliation is allowed in the United States, and in the event an annual conference votes to separate from the UMC, the dissenting clergy (assuming they number at least fifty), the bounds established by the jurisdictional conference, and the organizing documents of local churches that retain the name “United Methodist” may serve to constitute the continuing annual conference.

These realities support a ruling that an annual conference may not disaffiliate, separate, or sever connectional relationships with the United Methodist Church without the action and approval of General Conference.

Reply Brief for Docket 1021-23

Submitted April 21, 2022

Rev. David Horton Elder, Texas Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church

Leadership Team
Rev. Dr. John Stephens, Elder, Texas Annual Conference Rev. Emily Chapman, Elder, Texas Annual Conference Rev. Lindsay Kirkpatrick, Elder, Texas Annual Conference Mr. Sidney Earnheart, Laity, Texas Annual Conference

Summary
Responding to arguments made in another brief, this reply brief maintains that:

1. The right of the annual conference to vote to withdraw from the United Methodist Church is not lodged in ¶33 of the Book of Discipline.

2. Judicial Council Decision 1366 does not grant annual conferences the authority to separate from the United Methodist Church without an act of General Conference.

Therefore, the Judicial Council is requested to:

1. Rule that annual conference disaffiliation is a connectional matter, and therefore:

2. Rule with the opinion that ¶33 applies to rights that remain within the bounds of an annual conference and do not extend beyond those bounds to effect a change in connectional matters;

3. Rule that Decision 1366 holds what is constitutional for General Conference to do and does not constitute a pathway for annual conferences to separate from the UMC without General Conference conditions and procedure.