| UM court upholds bishops ruling By John W. Coleman Jr. UMCONNECTION Staff The United Methodist high court, meeting in Baltimore Oct. 23-25, affirmed a ruling made during the 2002 Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference that a motion to place a clergy member on involuntary leave of absence was out of order. The Judicial Council upheld Bishop Felton Edwin Mays decision that the motion, made during the June 6 clergy executive session, did not follow fair process. The motion involved the Rev. Rebecca Ann Steen, a transgender former pastor whose request to be reactivated from voluntary leave of absence was approved by the conference Board of Ordained Ministry and reported to the session. Steen later resigned under charges from the ordained ministry. She withdrew from the denomination during an administrative hearing on unrelated charges. In Decision No. 938, the council, which ruled on 25 docket items during its fall session, found that Bishop May correctly delineated the process by which a clergy person may be placed on involuntary leave of absence. That process, according to Section 359.2 of the 2000 Book of Discipline, requires at least 90 days advance notice before the clergy session occurs, a stipulation that may be waived by a vote of two-thirds of the members in full connection upon recommendation by the bishop, district superintendents and board of ordained ministry. The Discipline further requires that the clergy member have an administrative hearing before the bishop, superintendents, and executive committee of the ordained ministry board, and that the member be notified at least 20 days before that hearing. The council found that the 90-day notice was neither given nor waived, and that even it that process had been followed, no action could be taken on the motion until after an administrative hearing. All bishops decisions of church law are reviewed by the Judicial Council. | 
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