For Evangelical News Letter

The 2008 delegates to General Conference passed some amendments to the Constitution of the Book of Discipline. Before these proposed changes take effect they must also be approved by two-thirds of the delegates voting at all the annual conferences in 2009. As evangelicals we share a common concern about these changes. We present the following thoughts for your discernment as you prepare to vote at the annual conference.

AMMENDMENT 19

In short, this amendment will change who gets to vote for clergy delegates to General and Jurisdictional Conference. Currently, only full member deacons and elders are permitted to vote for the clergy representatives to the General and Jurisdictional Conference. Amendment 19 would allow those who are “associate members, provisional members and those local pastors that qualify” to vote for the clergy representatives. In the West Ohio Conference this would be a significant addition of voices that have a vote for clergy delegates. More and more of our churches are being served by Local Pastors and the number will most likely continue to grow. Many see this as a justice issue for their faithfulness. We also want you to consider that in the West Ohio many of our Local Pastors serve in the rural areas of the conference. The impact of this change is hard to predict, however, it does seem to give more voice to pastors faithfully serving small and rural churches and we welcome that addition to the voting process.

PROPOSED CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS ON THE WORLDWIDE NATURE OF THE CHURCH

There are 23 amendments that deal with the worldwide nature of the church (Amendments 3-5, 7, 10-14, 16, 18, 20, 21 and 23-32). We encourage the defeat of all 23. They have been conveniently labeled “group one” and “group two.” These amendments will significantly restructure the worldwide United Methodist Church with the creation of regional conferences. Strikingly, the General Conference created a task force to study the effects of this restructuring, but will not report until 2012, three years after we vote. We encourage the defeat of these amendments for that reason alone. There has not been a significant study on the impact of these changes and we are specifically concerned about the following:

1. The added cost of an additional layer of bureaucracy that will be paid for by the local church.

2. The loss or at least the lessening of the voice of United Methodist from the developing world, places such as Africa and Asia, in the United States. We need their voice of diversity and perspective.

3. The creation of greater disunity within the United Methodist Church with the formation of regional conferences. These regional conferences could possibly adopt their own practices, rules and regulations different from other regional conferences. Regional conferences would have greater autonomy and it is unclear which issues (some of which are of great concern for evangelicals) would be handled separately at the regional conference level.

We believe there is great wisdom in waiting for more study on this restructuring. We especially want the voices of those from the developing countries to be given greater consideration in this matter. We encourage a “no” vote to defeat these amendments.

AMENDMENT 1 DEALING WITH PARAGRAPH 4

This amendment will give the right of church membership to all persons irrespective of a pastor’s determination of their readiness to receive or abide by the membership vows. The impact of this amendment will be that any person can determine their readiness to become a church member and the pastor has no authority to say “yes” or “no” to that person. Where that sounds very noble in a pluralistic society, it is very problematic for the local church that often faces individuals who are not yet ready for membership. Of course, this amendment is a reaction to the decision of a pastor in South Hills, Virginia to deny church membership to a practicing homosexual. Where we are sympathetic to this on going conversation in the life of the church we oppose any amendment that removes the power of the pastor to supervise church membership. We believe this would, in effect, create more confusion and conflict in the local church. This amendment does not solve the problem it only makes it worse. Please defeat this amendment.

There are 7 more amendments delegates will vote on. The above amendments are the ones creating the most concern for evangelicals. We encourage a close scrutiny of these amendments and invite delegates to be present for all the votes at annual conference.