Jonathan LeMaster-Smith

As the UMC keeps on moving, the next thing we have coming up is the Judicial Council Meeting.

The Judicial Council is our Supreme Court. It decides on matters of church law of decisions of bishops, actions of conferences (charge, annual, jurisdictional, central, and general), and other issues of the church. The group of nine people make their decisions based whether something lines up with or violates the Book of Discipline, particularly the Constitution of the United Methodist Church.

They will be meeting October 27th through November 2nd in Africa (which feels vague, no city or country listed) to take up 6 cases (Link in the comments). These include issues of disaffiliation, cabinet actions that usurp annual conference action, financial issues relate to the Boy Scouts of America Case, issues of parliamentary procedure, clergy status, and the issues of conference action related to the Fifth Avenue United Methodist Church.

My hope is to provide some explanation of these before the rulings, and then explore the rulings and their impact for the church today.

Click Here to View the Docket