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November 15, 2012

31,000 United Methodist Clergy Won't Lose Tenure After All

UMC's highest court invalidates plan approved by denomination in May.

Melissa Steffan

In a recent ruling, the highest court of the United Methodist Church (UMC) ruled against a plan to end tenure for the denomination's 31,000 ordained clergy.

The UMC Judicial Council overturned a proposal approved by church leadership in May that would have removed "employment guarantees" for clergy.

Current policies for the UMC, the world's largest mainline denomination, "give each ordained pastor a place to preach until mandatory retirement at age 72." Supporters of the proposed plan argued that the new policies would allow churches to remove ineffective bishops.

But according to the Dallas Star, the Judicial Council "ruled that, while the regional body had the right to involuntarily retire a bishop, the procedures it created for the process did not meet UMC standards."

According to the ruling, the policy changes approved in May are "null, void, and of no effect."

CT recently discussed the issue of job security for pastors after the UMC General Conference vote in May.

posted by Melissa Steffan | Comments (1)

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Just to be clear, there are two issues which have been conflated in this gleaning. The first, dealing with what the UMC refers to as "security of appointment" is not truly a tenure system, at least as that idea is used in academic settings. Rather, it was a safeguard added in 1956 to insure that women and people of color would not be marginalized in the appointment system. Ineffective pastors are still subject to being transitioned out, but the proposal to eliminate security of appointment was made believing that we have moved past some of the issues which led to its original institution. Apparently, the Judicial Council did not agree, and so the guarantee remains, albeit with several qualifications. The second issue has to do with bishops and in that case, as was suggested, the court has allowed that the church can involuntarily retire ineffective bishops, but that in the case in question that due process was not completely followed. All within the church are looking for increased ways to be accountable, but we have found unfortunate differences as to what exactly that means, and so the question remains an ongoing one.

Posted By: C. Chappell Temple | November 15, 2012 12:25 PM

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