{"id":2542,"date":"2012-11-12T09:13:00","date_gmt":"2012-11-12T17:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=2542"},"modified":"2012-11-30T16:43:55","modified_gmt":"2012-12-01T00:43:55","slug":"top-court-reinstates-retired-bishop","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/top-court-reinstates-retired-bishop\/","title":{"rendered":"Top court reinstates \u2018retired\u2019 bishop"},"content":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma Area Bishop Robert E. Hayes Jr. leads a prayer for Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe after South Central Jurisdictional Conference delegates on July 19 affirmed the decision to compel Bledsoe\u2019s early retirement. A UMNS photo by Holly McCray.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

By Linda Bloom*<\/strong><\/em><\/p>\n

PHOENIX (UMNS) \u2014 The Dallas Area bishop who was involuntarily retired in July is to be \u201cimmediately reinstated to his rightful status as an active bishop of The United Methodist Church,\u201d the denomination\u2019s top court has ruled.<\/p>\n

In its Nov. 10 decision<\/a>, the United Methodist Judicial Council overturned the action of the South Central Jurisdiction Committee on Episcopacy and \u201cthe affirmation\u201d of that action by the 2012 South Central Jurisdictional Conference regarding Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe. The council cited \u201cnumerous errors in violation of the principles of fair process\u201d and \u201cthe inability to articulate\u201d what the \u201cbest interests\u201d of the church or of the bishop or of both would be.<\/p>\n

One council member submitted a written dissent from the majority position on the ruling and another offered a partial concurrence and partial dissent. The Rev. William Lawrence, Judicial Council president, also filed a concurrence.<\/p>\n

Bledsoe, 62, a first-time bishop who had overseen the North Texas Annual (regional) Conference for the past four years, was forced to retire Aug. 31. His status had been in limbo pending the results of\u00a0his appeal to Judicial Council<\/a>, which was considered during a Nov. 9-10 special session in Phoenix.<\/p>\n

In its ruling, the council said Bledsoe is entitled to an immediate episcopal assignment in the South Central Jurisdiction; to restoration of all status, salary and benefits and to compensation for costs \u201cincurred by him in defense of this action.\u201d<\/p>\n

Judicial Council will \u201cmonitor compliance with the terms of its decision,\u201d ensuring action by the South Central Jurisdiction Committee on Episcopacy and the jurisdiction\u2019s executive body \u201cin a prompt and timely manner.\u201d The committee\u2019s chair, Don House, was directed to provide a report by Feb. 17, 2013.<\/p>\n

Oral hearing<\/h3>\n

House appeared before the council during a Nov. 9 oral hearing on the appeal. Bledsoe, who was present with his wife, Leslie, was represented by Jon Gray, an attorney, lay member of the Missouri Annual Conference, and Judicial Council member from 2004 to 2012.<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/a>
Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Because of the number of questions asked by council members \u2014 mostly on matters of process \u2014 the hearing stretched to nearly three hours.<\/p>\n

Gray argued that the actions resulting in Bledsoe\u2019s involuntary retirement were \u201cunprecedented\u201d because those actions were unlawful and unauthorized by the Book of Discipline. He told the council that \u201cnumerous prejudicial errors of church law\u201d were committed by the South Central Jurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy, the 2012 South Central Jurisdictional Conference and the jurisdiction\u2019s college of bishops.<\/p>\n

The situation involving Bledsoe arose during the committee\u2019s evaluation process of the South Central Jurisdiction\u2019s episcopal leaders. Concerns over his leadership led to the push toward retirement. The bishop initially announced\u00a0his plans to retire and then changed his mind<\/a>. The committee responded with a public letter\u00a0about the mixed results of his evaluation<\/a>.<\/p>\n

On July 16-17, the committee on episcopacy conducted a hearing on the issue before deliberating for about nine hours. The decision resulting in Bledsoe\u2019s involuntary retirement\u00a0was backed by the jurisdictional conference<\/a>.<\/p>\n

The decision to vote for involuntary retirement was extremely difficult, House said during the hearing. Although two abstained from voting and four committee members were in opposition, \u201cnot one member out of 30 said we did not have merit\u201d to make the decision.<\/p>\n

House said the criteria the committee used in assessing Bledsoe included information on worship attendance and professions of faith. The question, he explained, was whether the bishop could lead North Texas \u201cin a turnaround\u201d on declining numbers in both categories. \u201cIt is our opinion that if we do not grow the church\u2026there will be a day when we collapse in the United States,\u201d he told the council.<\/p>\n

House said they had hoped to find a way for Bledsoe to use his spiritual gifts in a retirement position but pointed out he had lost the confidence of the clergy in his conference and elsewhere in the jurisdiction.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe believe it would have been a train wreck for him to go back to North Texas,\u201d he told the Judicial Council. \u201cWe did not find a place that would welcome Bishop Bledsoe.\u201d<\/p>\n

Bledsoe, who spoke briefly during the hearing, said that, contrary to House\u2019s assertions, there has been growth in North Texas. However, after the action of the committee on episcopacy, \u201cI felt like the work I had done the last three and a half years was all for nothing.\u201d<\/p>\n

Fair process<\/h3>\n

The appeal was heard \u201cunder the directives\u201d found in Paragraph 408.3(a) of the United Methodist Book of Discipline, the denomination\u2019s lawbook. That paragraph, amended by the 2012 United Methodist General Conference, the denomination\u2019s top legislative body, provides\u00a0some specific guidelines on placing a bishop in retirement involuntarily<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Judicial Council, which had ruled in October that the paragraph \u201cremains constitutional,\u201d said in its decision that arguments \u201cabout whether the process was constitutional are now deemed to be irrelevant. We reviewed the process in light of fairness, equity, justice, legality and timeliness of the process.\u201d<\/p>\n

Gray argued the committee on episcopacy misapplied the paragraph\u2019s provisions. He pointed out that neither the committee nor the jurisdictional conference \u201cis authorized to piece together a process\u201d to involuntarily retire a bishop.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe fundamental issue you have to decide is whether a bishop can be deprived of lawful life tenure without the referral of a complaint,\u201d he said.<\/p>\n

House explained that the committee\u2019s two guiding principles for its actions were protecting the dignity of the bishop and the dignity of the church. Using a complaint process that could lead \u201cto what we might call the death penalty,\u201d he said, referring to a surrender of a bishop\u2019s consecration papers. That outcome did not fit in with the committee\u2019s principles.<\/p>\n

The council\u2019s decision acknowledged the committee\u2019s attempt to ensure fair process for the July hearing on Bledsoe. But because a complaint was not filed, \u201cthe committee established its own processes and timelines that are not specifically provided by the Discipline.\u201d<\/p>\n

The council found \u201cno specific criteria upon which a decision was made\u201d in the material it received from the committee on episcopacy. Specific reasons for \u201cthe recommended action of involuntary retirement\u201d of Bledsoe were not presented in writing and the statement of the committee\u2019s action was not included in the formal minutes of the South Central Jurisdictional Conference.<\/p>\n

Concurrence and dissent<\/h3>\n

Kurt Glassco, the second lay alternative member to the Judicial Council, was seated in place of Beth Capen, who was absent because she had been undergoing treatment for Lyme Disease.<\/p>\n

Glassco dissented from the decision, writing that the committee on episcopacy had properly exercised its authority and \u201cshould be permitted to make deductions and reach conclusions which reason and common sense lead them to draw from the facts which they found to have been established by the testimony and evidence in the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

Lawrence\u2019s concurrence, also signed by the Rev. J. Kabamba Kiboko and the Rev. Kathi Austin-Mahle, noted that an overwhelming vote by the committee to retire Bledsoe and an overwhelming affirmation of the vote by the jurisdictional conference \u201cdo not alter or mitigate the flaws in the process that the committee followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Ruben Reyes dissented from the council\u2019s conclusion regarding the committee\u2019s \u201cnumerous errors in violation of fair process,\u201d noting its work beyond the call of duty but concurred with the majority opinion that the \u201cnot-so-clear process\u2026 cast a shadow on the propriety of the procedure followed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Read the full Judicial Council decision.<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

\n

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at\u00a0http:\/\/twitter.com\/umcscribe<\/a>.<\/p>\n

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or\u00a0newsdesk@umcom.org<\/a>.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Oklahoma Area Bishop Robert E. Hayes Jr. leads a prayer for Bishop W. Earl Bledsoe after South Central Jurisdictional Conference delegates on July 19 affirmed the decision to compel Bledsoe\u2019s early retirement. A UMNS photo by Holly McCray. By Linda Bloom* PHOENIX (UMNS) \u2014 The Dallas Area bishop who was involuntarily retired in July is […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":2543,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":false,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[3],"tags":[127,140,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-2542","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-umns","8":"tag-episcopal-leadership","9":"tag-judicial-court","10":"tag-umns"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2012\/11\/umns12_322_1.jpg?fit=1024%2C462&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-F0","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2542"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2548,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2542\/revisions\/2548"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2543"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2542"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2542"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2542"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}