This is part 2 of a seven part series. You may find all articles in the series, as they are published, on the series landing page.
A description of one chargeable offense for clergy and an entire second chargeable offense were removed from the Book of Discipline by the 2024 General Conference.
Both of these changes went into effect in the United States and in other English-speaking annual conferences in the central conferences of The United Methodist Church immediately upon the adjournment of the 2024 legislative assembly. No action of a General Conference goes into effect in non-English speaking annual conferences of The United Methodist Church until 18 months after the adjournment of that General Conference.
Paragraph 2702 of the 2016 Book of Discipline contains the list of chargeable offenses that may be alleged in formal complaints against either laity or clergy. For most of the history of The United Methodist Church, the lists of offenses were the same for laity and clergy. The 2004 General Conference, meeting in Pittsburgh, added a description to one of those offenses (immorality) and an entirely new second chargeable offense against clergy only, putting the two lists out of parity with each other.
Here is the opening of Paragraph 2702 as it currently appears:
¶ 2702. 1. A bishop, clergy member of an annual conference (¶ 370), local pastor, clergy on honorable or administrative location, or diaconal minister may be tried when charged (subject to the statute of limitations in (¶ 2702.4) with one or more of the following offenses: (a) immorality including but not limited to, not being celibate in singleness or not faithful in a heterosexual marriage; (b) practices declared by The United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teachings, including but not limited to: being a self-avowed practicing homosexual; or conducting ceremonies which celebrate homosexual unions; or performing same-sex wedding ceremonies....
Everything quoted above from this paragraph after the word "immorality" had been added by the 2004 General Conference. Prior to 2005, then, the Discipline did not supply any sort of description or definition of "immorality" for either laity or clergy. The language added in 2004 and effective beginning in 2005 applied solely to clergy.
Similarly, what is here listed as "b) practices declared by The United Methodist Church to be incompatible with Christian teaching..." had not previously existed in any Book of Discipline, and has never appeared in the list of chargeable offenses for laity.
Thus, what the General Conference did in removing the description of the first chargeable offense against clergy and removing the entirety of the second chargeable offense against clergy was to return the lists of chargeable offenses to parity between lay and clergy just as they had been prior to the 2004 General Conference.
When the General Conference addressed the petitions to remove this language, there was significant discussion whether removing the language added in 2004 from the first chargeable offense left unclear what constituted "immorality." However, it was also noted on the floor that the church seemed to have been able to deal with charges of immorality against both lay and clergy for all of its history prior to 2004, without concerns that the charge lacked clarity. An attempt to substitute a minority report that would have added the phrase, "including, but not limited to, not being celibate in singleness, or not faithful in a marriage" to describe immorality was overwhelmingly defeated by a vote of 191-479. The vote on the main motion, which both returned the list of chargeable offenses to its state of pre-2004 parity and made this change effective with the close of the General Conference, was affirmed 474-206.
So what is the effect of this change? First, clergy can no longer be charged through the complaint process for being a self-avowed practicing homosexual nor for having presided at a same-sex union or wedding ceremony. As a result of this change and another action of the General Conference, clergy who were charged and removed from their ministries because of such charges could, at the discretion of the annual conference clergy session, be invited to return to full membership in the clergy session and eligibility for appointment within their conference. Under these provisions, The Rev. Beth Stroud (elder, Eastern Pennsylvania Conference), removed in 2004, was reinstated as an elder in full connection at that annual conference's clergy session on May 21, 2024.
However, some of the effects of this chargeable offense have not necessarily expired. For persons not entirely removed, but rather suspended or facing other consequences through previously completed just resolution agreements, such restrictions remain in force. This is the case in particular for a deacon and an elder in the Mississippi Conference, The Revs. Elizabeth Davidson and Paige Swaim-Presley, who co-presided at the wedding of a non-binary couple in 2023. Davidson remains on involuntary leave through the end of 2024. Swaim-Presley's involuntary leave concludes June 30.
It is equally important to note what these changes to the chargeable offenses do not do. They do not, as some have alleged, give warrant for adultery or any other form of immorality, sexual or otherwise. Rather, by deleting the description for immorality, the matter of what constitutes immorality for clergy and whether the charge is sufficiently proven returns fully to the discretion of the jury of peers within one's own annual conference before whom the case is tried, just as it is for laypersons.
