{"id":7240,"date":"2014-04-28T11:09:20","date_gmt":"2014-04-28T18:09:20","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/?p=7240"},"modified":"2014-04-28T11:08:25","modified_gmt":"2014-04-28T18:08:25","slug":"finance-agency-can-grant-same-gender-benefits-court-says","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/finance-agency-can-grant-same-gender-benefits-court-says\/","title":{"rendered":"Finance agency can grant same-gender benefits, court says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.\u00a0The 2012 edition of The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church.<\/em><\/p>\n

\n

By Linda Bloom\u00a0LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UMNS), April 28, 2014<\/span><\/h4>\n

By virtue of its own authority, the finance agency of The United Methodist Church can provide benefits for same-gender spouses of general agency employees.<\/p>\n

That was one of the decisions reached by the\u00a0United Methodist Judicial Council<\/a>\u00a0during its April 23-26 spring session.<\/p>\n

The denomination\u2019s top court also upheld a bishop\u2019s decision that a certified clergy candidate should be allowed the opportunity for an interview regardless of sexual orientation and modified another bishop\u2019s decision regarding a marriage equality resolution from the Desert Southwest Annual (regional) Conference.<\/p>\n

Two Judicial Council lay members<\/a>, Beth Capen and Ruben T. Reyes, were unable to be present at the Little Rock meeting. Participating instead were two elected lay alternates, Sandra Lutz of Canton, Ohio, and Randall Miller of Oakland, Calif.<\/p>\n

Benefits for same-gender spouses<\/strong><\/p>\n

Directors of the denomination\u2019s General Council on Finance and Administration voted Oct. 21, 2013,\u00a0to expand the definition of spouse<\/a>\u00a0in the General Agencies Welfare Benefits Program to include same-gender spouses recognized by a state as being legally married to the employee and civil partners who had state recognition for being the legal partner of an employee.<\/p>\n

At that time, Bishop Michael J. Coyner, the finance agency\u2019s president, explained the action was taken \u201cto make policy decisions that stay in conformity with both civil and church law.\u201d<\/p>\n

The board also took a second action requesting \u201ca declaratory decision\u201d from the Judicial Council on whether the policy would violate\u00a0Paragraph 806.9<\/a>\u00a0in the 2012 United Methodist Book of Discipline, the denomination\u2019s law book.<\/p>\n

The paragraph prohibits United Methodist funds from being given \u201cto any gay caucus or group,\u201d from being used to promote the acceptance of homosexuality or violate the church\u2019s commitment \u201cnot to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

In\u00a0Decision 1264<\/a>, Judicial Council ruled that by its own action in adopting the policy, the finance agency had \u201cdetermined that the use of general agency funds to subsidize premium costs for employees and their same-gendered spouses enrolled in the General Agencies Welfare Benefits Program\u201d did not violate church law.<\/p>\n

General agencies are not considered a gay caucus or group, the ruling said, and previous Judicial Council decisions have upheld the authority of the finance agency to determine for itself whether contributing to employee benefits would constitute promoting the acceptance of homosexuality.<\/p>\n

Two concurring opinions, each signed by several Judicial Council members, addressed broader aspects of the decision.<\/p>\n

One concurrence noted that statements in the denomination\u2019s\u00a0Social Principles<\/a>\u00a0about human rights, values and health care, along with the resolution, \u201cHealth Care for All in the United States,\u201d in the 2012 Book of Resolutions, \u201cform the moral and ethical framework for the action taken by the GCFA.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cIt is a matter of simple justice to protect basic rights of all people, regardless of sexual orientation,\u201d said the concurrence, signed by the Rev. Katherine Austin Mahle, Angela Brown, Miller and Lutz. \u201cThis is not the same as \u2018promoting the acceptance of homosexuality.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The other concurrence \u2014 signed by the Rev. F. Belton Joyner Jr., the Rev. Dennis Blackwell and N. Oswald Tweh Jr. \u2014 agreed with the council\u2019s decision but felt it \u201cfailed to address fully the questions raised\u201d in what they considered to be three requests for deliberation from the finance agency.<\/p>\n

One outcome, they suggested, is that Decision 1264 \u201c\u2026does not assure that the policy might not be questioned again or that disciplinary provisions might be changed.\u201d<\/p>\n

Interviewing clergy candidates<\/strong><\/p>\n

After\u00a0an October 2013 ruling<\/a>\u00a0by the Judicial Council, San Antonio Area\u00a0Bishop James Dorff issued a decision<\/a>\u00a0about whether a candidate who happens to be a lesbian could be discontinued as a certified clergy candidate without an interview and examination by the conference\u2019s board of ordained ministry.<\/p>\n

Church law declares all people are of sacred worth but states that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching\u201d and bans \u201cself-avowed practicing homosexuals\u201d from \u201cbeing certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve in The United Methodist Church.\u201d<\/p>\n

Dorff\u2019s decision that Mary Ann Barclay remain \u00a0a candidate for ministry after approval by a district committee was affirmed by the council in\u00a0Decision 1263<\/a>, which noted that the issue was one of process and that the \u201csexual orientation and practices of the candidate are irrelevant for determining the matter.\u201d<\/p>\n

None of the conditions in the Book of Discipline under which a certified candidate may be discontinued was met in this case, the council said in its analysis. Records show the responsibility of the district committee on ordained ministry to submit the names of individuals being recommended for provisional membership was met.<\/p>\n

\u201cWhen a district committee on ordained ministry recommends a candidate for election to provisional membership, the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry shall include a personal interview with the candidate as part of its full examination of the candidate in order to determine his\/her fitness for election to provisional membership,\u201d the decision said.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs this disciplinary point was ignored by the Conference Board of Ordained Ministry, the candidate remains a certified candidate for ordained ministry.\u201d<\/p>\n

Validity of marriage equality resolution<\/strong><\/p>\n

The Judicial Council modified a\u00a0decision of law by Phoenix Area Bishop Robert T. Hoshibata<\/a>upholding the\u00a0\u201cMarriage Equality Resolution\u201d passed by the Desert Southwest Annual (regional) Conference in June 2013.<\/a><\/p>\n

The resolution\u2019s statement of facts deplores that denial of \u201cfull access\u201d to the rights and privileges of The United Methodist Church is causing \u201cdeep spiritual harm to our LGBT brothers and sisters.\u201d<\/p>\n

The first \u201cresolved\u201d section of the resolution, which calls upon the conference and its churches to make a public statement supporting marriage equality, does not violate church law, the council ruled in\u00a0Decision 1262<\/a>, because it is \u201ca legitimate appeal as an aspiration in form and content.\u201d<\/p>\n

However, the council found the resolution\u2019s second \u201cresolved\u201d section, to be \u201cnull, void and of no effect\u201d because it encourages a violation of church law by declaring support to clergy engaged in specific chargeable offenses \u2014 \u201cconducting ceremonies which celebrate homosexual unions; or performing same-sex wedding ceremonies where it is civically legal to do so.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cFor this case, an important precedent was established in Judicial Council Decision 1111,\u201d the council wrote, \u201cwhich states, \u2018An annual conference may not negate, ignore, or violate provisions of the Discipline with which they disagree, even when the disagreements are based on conscientious objections to the provisions.\u2019\u201d<\/p>\n

The third \u201cresolved\u201d section of the conference\u2019s marriage equality resolution offers support to clergy brought up on charges because of their involvement with homosexual unions or same-sex weddings. \u201cBut the text of the resolution as adopted by the conference does not clearly state whether supporting someone \u2018spiritually, emotionally, and prayerfully\u2019 while that person faces charges for violating Church law is to be understood as limiting the support to those specific forms,\u201d the court\u2019s decision pointed out.<\/p>\n

The council ruled the third \u201cresolved section\u201d to be \u201cwithin Church law to the extent that its definition of supporting someone \u2018spiritually, emotionally and prayerfully\u2019 is understood not to ignore, negate or violate church law.\u201d<\/p>\n

In other business<\/strong><\/p>\n

In other business, a decision by New Jersey Area Bishop John Schol regarding the status of a nonprofit established to assist those affected by Superstorm Sandy\u00a0was affirmed by the Judicial Council in Decision 1261<\/a>.<\/p>\n

Last fall, in\u00a0Decision 1959<\/a>, Judicial Council had requested further documentation on whether the nonprofit corporation, A Future With Hope, was an agency of the Greater New Jersey Conference. Judicial Council member Blackwell, a clergy member of that conference, recused himself from decisions related to A Future With Hope. A clergy alternate member, the Rev. Timothy K. Bruster, replaced him in those deliberations.<\/p>\n

In a matter involving requests for a decision of law related to the Philippines Central Conference, the council required, in\u00a0Memorandum 1260<\/a>, that it receive specified paperwork by June 1.<\/p>\n

\n

\n

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her at<\/em>http:\/\/twitter.com\/umcscribe.or<\/em><\/a>\u00a0contact her at (646) 369-3759 or\u00a0<\/em>newsdesk@umcom.org<\/em><\/a>.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Photo by Mike DuBose, UMNS.\u00a0The 2012 edition of The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church. By Linda Bloom\u00a0LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (UMNS), April 28, 2014 By virtue of its own authority, the finance agency of The United Methodist Church can provide benefits for same-gender spouses of general agency employees. That was one of the […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":6349,"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":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[32,3],"tags":[372,22,185,124,371,31],"class_list":{"0":"post-7240","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-news","8":"category-umns","9":"tag-bishop-hoshibata","10":"tag-bishops","11":"tag-gcfa","12":"tag-judicial-council","13":"tag-mary-ann-barclay","14":"tag-umns"},"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/02\/11859490876_c940df84a8_c.jpg?fit=800%2C553&ssl=1","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p2l75j-1SM","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240","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=7240"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":7251,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7240\/revisions\/7251"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/6349"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7240"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7240"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.pnwumc.org\/news\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7240"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}