Volume 3 of the Advance Daily Christian Advocate includes eight petitions related to disaffiliation. Some provide a path for annual conferences and/or central conferences to disaffiliate. Others modify the expired Paragraph 2553 to expand either its timelines or the reasons a local church may apply for disaffiliation, or both. One substantially rewrites Paragraph 2553.
Central conference and annual conference disaffiliation petitions
Three of the new petitions would permit annual conferences to disaffiliate (21018, 21028 and 20130). The latter two also permit central conferences to disaffiliate and are identical to each other except for the omission of an appendix found in the former.
Petition 21018 — from Lonnie Brooks, a lay reserve delegate from Alaska who has announced he will not be in attendance — proposes a new subparagraph 14 in Paragraph 604 to permit an annual conference in any jurisdiction or central conference to withdraw from The United Methodist Church upon achieving a 2/3 vote of the annual conference members present and voting (p. 1312). Churches within the conference wishing to remain United Methodist may do so by a simple majority vote of a church conference called for the purpose of holding such a vote. No expiration dates are attached to either process by this legislation.
Petition 21028 is the “Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation and Restructuring” (pp. 1314-1334). Under this legislation submitted before COVID-19 required the postponement of the General Conference, central conferences may disaffiliate to form or join what the legislation refers to as a New Methodist Denomination by a vote of 2/3 of its lay and clergy members present and voting at a regular or called session of the annual conference. Annual conferences within a central conference could vote to remain in The United Methodist Church if their central conference had voted to leave to join or form a New Methodist denomination. An annual conference could also vote to form or join a New Methodist Denomination if its central conference had not voted or a vote to leave the denomination had failed. The required threshold for annual conference votes to pass in either case would be 57% of the lay and clergy members present at a regular or called session of the annual conference.
The Protocol legislation makes no provisions for jurisdictions in the United States to vote to leave to form or join a New Methodist Denomination. Still, any annual conferences within the jurisdictions may vote to do so by a 57% majority of the lay and clergy members present and voting at a regular or special called session of the annual conference.
Whether within or outside the United States, local churches would be permitted to vote to change their alignment with their annual conference. Each local church council would have the right to determine whether a simple majority or a 2/3 vote of the professing members present at a called church conference would be required to pass the motion before the body. The motion would depend on the action of the annual conference. If the annual conference remains United Methodist, the local church’s motion would be to request affiliation in a New Methodist Denomination certified by the Council of Bishops of The United Methodist Church. If the annual conference passes a motion to exit The United Methodist Church, the local church's motion would be to remain United Methodist and become associated with a United Methodist annual conference. This legislation does not require annual conference approval for local churches to change their alignment, a central conference’s approval for an annual conference within it to change its alignment, nor General Conference’s approval for a central conference to change its alignment, provided that what is chosen is either to remain part of The United Methodist Church or to form or join a New Methodist Denomination.
A cascade of deadlines for these actions is included at the end of the Protocol legislation. The stated deadlines have now passed. General Conference would need to change them should it decide to adopt this legislation.
Revised legislation for local church disaffiliation
Two of the newly proposed revisions to Paragraph 2553 make minor changes to the expired legislation, including extending its expiration date.
Petition 21024 from the Western Pennsylvania Conference (pp. 1355-1357) extends the expiration date to Dec. 31, 2027, and replaces the 2020 General Conference for the 2019 General Conference in the first paragraph of the original legislation to enable congregations to pursue concerns about the action or inaction of their own annual conference in response to General Conference actions in 2024.
Petition 21026 from the Susquehanna Conference (p. 1359) only alters the expiration date of the original legislation from Dec. 31, 2023, to Dec. 31, 2026.
Two other petitions change the expiration date and expand the reasons for which a church may request disaffiliation.
Petition 21022 from the Illinois Great Rivers Conference (p. 1354) would allow a local church to request disaffiliation for any reason, provided the disaffiliation process starts no later than Dec. 31, 2025, and concludes no later than Dec. 31, 2026, after which the legislation expires.
Petition 21023 from Brad Berner of Amite City, Louisiana (p. 1355), allows for disaffiliation when congregations are disturbed by the existence of ongoing discernment and any actions taken regarding human sexuality by the 2024 General Conference. It extends the expiration date to the end of 2028.
While the reasons allowing a request for disaffiliation to proceed may be expanded in some of these items, none of them impinges on the final discernment of the annual conference trustees in setting the terms for disaffiliation agreements nor on the annual conference itself in its vote on whether to approve disaffiliations.
Rewritten legislation for disaffiliation
The most elaborate, newly presented disaffiliation legislation, Petition 21025 from the Rev. Jerry Kulah of Liberia (pp. 1357-1359), proposes, in effect, a substitute for the expired Paragraph 2553. It lays out a “uniform” process of disaffiliation “for reasons of conscience regarding the differences in the theology and practice related to the level of participation of LGBTQ persons in the life of the Church.” The new paragraph would apply immediately upon the adjournment of the General Conference worldwide, not awaiting decisions by the central conferences on whether to accept, reject or modify this legislation. The expiration date is Dec. 31, 2029.
As in the expired version of Paragraph 2553, a decision to request disaffiliation would require a 2/3 vote of the professing members of the local church present and voting at a called church conference. However, in this proposal, abstentions are not counted at all. This contradicts the most recent complete version of Robert’s Rules of Order (44:9). Robert’s Rules counts abstentions as part of the total of votes cast. This means that under Robert's Rules, abstentions may have an effect on the outcome. Also, while the Discipline’s Paragraph 246 grants appointed clergy a vote in church conferences because they are members of the charge conference, this legislation states clergy do not have a vote. And while the Discipline’s Paragraph 248 mentions several ways the district superintendent may be asked to call a church conference (by the pastor, the church council, or 10% of the professing membership of the local church), this legislation mandates that if any of those three make such a request the district superintendent must promptly schedule the church conference for a vote.
The basic payments for disaffiliation are retained for those in the United States. Worldwide, the current year of apportionments plus one full year of additional apportionment payments is due in advance of the effective date of disaffiliation. A pro rata share of the annual conference’s pension liability is also due by that time for those in the United States.
Beyond this, several other conditions are quite different. Disaffiliating clergy are to remain covered under the conference’s retiree health insurance plan despite having exited the conference. Property and liability insurance already paid must be considered valid for a disaffiliated church (which may face legal hurdles when the named covered is no longer the same corporate entity). Finally, congregations may, without further approvals, use their property and assets as collateral to pay the amounts due to the annual conference, something which is not authorized without separate charge conference action and approval by the district superintendent (Paragraphs 2540 and 2541).
This proposal, unlike the expired paragraph, explicitly includes approval by the annual conference as a necessary step before disaffiliation takes place. However, it also prohibits annual conferences from not approving conference a disaffiliation request for any reason other than nonpayment of funds. It also further limits the authority of annual conferences granted in Paragraph 2549 to close local churches, and explicitly prohibits an annual conference to use Paragraph 2549.3.b to close a local church once it has entered the discernment process for disaffiliation unless this action is approved by a majority vote of the local church conference.
The discernment process in this legislation must include roughly equal time for presenters advocating for disaffiliation and those advocating for remaining part of The United Methodist Church to make their case to the local church. The legislation also prohibits bishops and district superintendents from “interfering with the choice of presenters made by the local church.”
Overall, this petition reflects and seeks to correct negative experiences a few congregations experienced in the course of the previous disaffiliation process in the United States. However, the proposed corrections primarily work by reducing or nullifying the discretion and influence of other parties in the connectional system of The United Methodist Church, whether bishops, district superintendents, annual conference boards of trustees, or the members of the annual conference when they vote.
Burton Edwards is director of Ask The UMC, the information service of United Methodist Communications.
