The challenge for the church’s annual conferences is how to retain the denomination’s connectional relationships and meet mission priorities on a limited budget. The restructuring can also raise questions about whether the changes adhere to church law.

Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, considered these questions during its April 21-24 spring meeting in Madison, N.J.

Among the nine docket items on the council’s agenda are decisions by Dakotas Area Bishop Deborah Lieder Kiesey about whether a standing committee on archives and history is required under that conference’s new structure and by Indiana Bishop Michael Coyner on the 2010 budget for the new, unified conference in that state.

Two years ago, the Dakotas Conference set up a reorganizational task force, naming it “Romans 12” after the Bible verse that refers to being transformed “by the renewing of the mind.”

“One of the things they came back with was a completely different structure,” Kiesey explained. “The whole purpose of the Romans 12 document is to focus on … equipping the local church.”

The new structure was approved in June. At a special annual conference session in November, some of the pieces were determined, the bishop said.

In Indiana, a new structure has affected the budget for program areas. During the 2009 Indiana Annual Conference in June, a request for a decision of law from the bishop was made about whether proper procedures had been followed in bringing the 2010 budget to the body.

The Indiana Conference is a uniting of the former Indiana North and Indiana South conferences. Although the new body became official in October 2008, two separate budgets and accounts were retained until Dec. 31, 2009. The current year represents the first under a single budget.

In a docket item deferred from the fall meeting, the Judicial Council also will consider a decision of law from Michigan Area Bishop Jonathan Keaton regarding the adoption of a master group program for insuring all churches in the West Michigan Annual Conference.

In other business, the Judicial Council is being asked for a “declaratory decision” by United Methodists in the Philippines related to a church and civil court case there and whether the Philippines Central Conference College of Bishops has the authority to handle a complaint against one of its members.

A PDF of the docket is available here.

---adapted from UMNS story by Linda Bloom, 
United Methodist News Service news writer

The General Administration Fund helps support the work of the Judicial Council as it adjudicates questions of church law. Please encourage your congregation to support the General Administration Fund apportionments at 100%.