Fair Process?

- WNCCUMC Board of Ordained Ministry Chair - Churches that disaffiliated from the UMC are not “valid contexts”…

I will follow up soon with my reflections on my journey with the UMC since my last article. But I wanted to make sure that today’s Clergy Session in which my involuntary discontinuance was “heard” by the Annual Conference was available for listening as soon as possible. I had to read my prepared remarks quickly because I was only given 5 minutes to defend the last 8 years of my work to become a Provisional Elder with the UMC. So in case the speed with which I had to deliver these remarks prevents full understanding, below is a transcript of my remarks. If I earned a single raised hand in the vote that followed, I didn’t see it. Does that speak to my position or the nature of what the United Methodist Church has become?

-Remarks before the Clergy Session of the June 19, 2025 Western North Carolina Annual Conference and the response of the Board of Ordained Ministry Chairperson:

My fellow clergy, I stand before you, a Provisional Elder in the United Methodist Church. I have dedicated the last 8 years of my life to becoming an Ordained Elder in this denomination and have served the Western North Carolina Conference and its churches continuously for over 5 years. For the last year and a half, the Bishop, Cabinet, and the Board of Ordained Ministry have acted in concert to accomplish one thing with regard to my credentials – involuntary discontinuance.

I stand before you, uncharged with any offense under our Discipline. My only mistake as our Bishop, Cabinet, and Board of Ordained Ministry would describe, has been to love and serve a people I was prohibited from loving and serving. Prohibited not by any written rule in our Discipline or written decision from our Judicial Council. Prohibited by an unwritten decree from our Bishop and Cabinet. No clergy in the Western North Carolina Conference shall serve a disaffiliated church. A year and a half ago, I asked to do just that. And less than three months later, the Board of Ordained Ministry had voted to discontinue me as a Provisional Elder.

I stand before you, a witness to injustice. There has been much said about injustice over the course of the last 8 years in which I have been officially involved in the business of our Conference. Countless clergy and bishops (ours included) fought against what they described as injustice. Many even violated the written rules of our Discipline to stand in opposition to this perceived injustice. Some were punished. Some have been restored. But now, in the battle against injustice, our Conference leadership has committed it. Where did that rule come from – no clergy shall be allowed to serve a disaffiliated church? No one has answered that for me. I’ve searched. The closest I could come was a best practices document from the Council of Bishops.

I have been a member of the North Carolina State Bar for almost 25 years and have been practicing law for all of those. I have represented countless clients, argued before countless judges and tried dozens of cases before juries. I have even argued cases before the Tennessee Court of Appeals and the Tennessee Supreme Court. I have a better than average understanding of due process, as well as what is required for procedural and substantive fairness.

In my 25 years of practicing law, I have never seen injustice like the actions committed against me by our Bishop, Cabinet, and Board of Ordained Ministry over the last year and a half. Had I not possessed a law degree and the legal experience I did, you would have voted for my involuntary discontinuance from Provisional Membership at last year’s Annual Conference following the Board of Ordained Ministry’s vote to remove me. Perhaps you remember our Bishop removing my name from that list last year. That is because the Cabinet and Board of Ordained Ministry had violated the substantive due process or “fair process” provisions of our Discipline in their effort to remove me.

Since that time, the Cabinet and Board of Ordained Ministry have repeatedly violated additional substantive due process or “fair process” provisions of our Discipline. In fact, the Administrative Review Committee that was tasked with reviewing the procedural accuracy or process fairness of the Conference leadership’s actions against me didn’t even consider my case until today. Today! That is despite the fact that our Discipline requires that meeting much sooner, in time for me to be heard before that Committee. In fact, I am entitled to that hearing – a hearing that was never granted. I am also entitled to a hearing before you with a verbatim record as the Discipline requires. But instead, you are only allowed to hear me provide you with whatever I can speak in 5 minutes. Eight years. Five minutes.

The Bishop, Cabinet, and Board of Ordained Ministry are done with providing me fair process. They are committed to my discontinuance and will not stop this time. The truth of my case is that I have never refused an appointment. The Cabinet and Board of Ordained Ministry make that claim, but it is not true. Actually, since 2023, I have never been appointed or directed to go anywhere by our Bishop and Cabinet. What I have done is insist that my request to serve a disaffiliated congregation in a temporary extension appointment be given fair consideration – the fair consideration that our Discipline requires. I have refused to break relationships with members of that disaffiliated congregation. I have loved a people that we are not allowed to love – a disaffiliated congregation.

If that is a crime in this Conference, then I don’t want to be a part of it. But our Bishop and Cabinet and Board of Ordained Ministry don’t get to make that decision. You do. You are the authority in this Conference. Not the bureaucracy: Not the Bishop. Not the Cabinet. Not the Board of Ordained Ministry. The Annual Conference. So, will you make it a crime in this Conference to associate with a disaffiliated congregation? Will you make it a crime in this Conference to love a people just because they left our formal connection over deeply held convictions? Will you foreclose the beautiful possibility of some connection with our departed brothers and sisters just because of how they think? “Though we cannot think alike, may we not love alike?” Will you live out John Wesley’s timeless words?

My fellow clergy. Please think carefully before you vote today. Why would I be placing the last 8 years of my life’s work on the line today? There is something greater than all of us at stake here. Let your vote today be to end the dysfunction and division that have marked so much of our existence. Let us be the testament of unity for the Living God. This may be one small example, one small opportunity, but your vote here could be the small ripple that begins a tidal wave of change for the United Methodist Church. We live in a divided world. Let’s transform the world!