The letter below was sent to Pelita Methodist from the TRAC Methodist Seniors Fellowship. We reprint it below for the information of our readership but it does not mean that this is the view of Pelita Methodist. Please also note that we are not opening it for debate here and therefore will not publish any response to this letter. Editor.

VIEW FROM 3SCORE10

1. Is our Church heading in the right direction? We see the Church being busy in obeying the Great Commission from the local to national level, organising mission trips and prayer conventions, among others, even speaking up for the rights of citizens including our indigenous brothers and sisters; yes – we are doing many things that are good and right. Yet a group within the Church is regarded as a non-entity.
 
2. 70 is just a number but to the Methodist Church, any member who reaches the age which bears the number “70” loses a right which a citizen of this country, Malaysia, exercises until he is no longer a citizen or ceases on death. The right referred to is the right to vote and the right to hold office. Both these rights are concomitant. Our administrative structure is such that in order to have the right to vote you must hold an office. Therefore if you do not hold an office, you do not have the right to vote. This is the position for being a “citizen” of the Methodist Church. 

3. What is the rationale for the deprivation of such right at the age of 70? Your guess is as good as mine! “It is in the Book of Discipline of The Methodist Church in Malaysia”, one can hear a voice blasting into your ears. It says that at age 70, a member does not have the right to hold office or serve in committees at local and national level.

4. Does the Methodist Discipline have such provisions? Cannot be – when a church is first organised, every member who is age 21 and above has the right to vote and stand for office. Again, at a congregational meeting of the church (if it is held), every member who is age 21 and above has the right to vote, and also the right to stand for office, presumably, because that goes with the right to vote. The Methodist Discipline says so!

5. However, after a church is organised, what happens? That is when the spectre of discrimination based on age rears its ugly head. “It is in the Book of Discipline of The Methodist Church in Malaysia”, the voice yells again! After the church is organised, you cannot hold office or serve in committees if you carry the number “70” in your age.
 
6. How can the Methodist Discipline contain conflicting and contradictory provisions you ask? Is it “Methodism” at its best? A human is fallible and Methodists being humans are therefore also fallible. Can this act of commission be rectified? We believe it can be. Let us see. 

7. Does the Methodist Church support the right of all citizens in Malaysia to be equal before the law? We believe that the Methodist Church supports it because such a right is provided in the Constitution of the Federation of Malaysia, and because the Methodist Social Principles also say so. One of the categories of the Methodist Social Principles is Human Rights and Responsibilities of which Freedom from Discrimination is the first to be highlighted. Under this Right, it says “we stand for equal rights for all racial, cultural, and religious groups, and insist that the principles set forth herein apply to all alike. The right to choose a home, enter a school, secure employment, promotion, vote, and have access to public accommodations should be guaranteed to all regardless of race, culture, national origin, social class, or religion.” If the right to vote is guaranteed to those whose religion is Christianity, can the powers that be in that religion deprive 70-year old members of that right within that religious denomination, Methodism?

8. Furthermore, in the World Methodist Social Affirmation, Methodists are called to “rejoice in every sign of God’s kingdom; in the upholding of human dignity and community;” and “confess our sin, individual and collective, by silence or action: through the violation of human dignity based on race, class, age, sex, nation, or faith.” Is it not right to say that the Social Principles are an affirmation of the Methodist Church’s stand on Justice and Human Rights? 

9. And furthermore, the Constitutional provisions in the Methodist Discipline state that the persons holding office shall be not less than 21 years of age and that lay members/delegates to the Annual Conference and General Conference respectively shall be at least 21 years of age and shall have been for the four years preceding their election, members in good standing of The Methodist Church in Malaysia. That, in a nutshell, is the constitutional benchmark requirement for a member to vote and to hold office.

10. The provisions in the Rules of Organisation and Administration of the Methodist Discipline which state that members age 70 and above cannot hold office or serve in committees are subsidiary legislation and are ultra vires the Constitutional provisions because they are contradictory to the Constitutional provisions. The Judicial Council of The Methodist Church in Malaysia has held in a case before them that should there be any conflict between a Constitutional provision and a provision in the Rules of Organisation and
Administration of the Methodist Discipline on the same matter, the Constitutional provision must prevail.
 
11. The Methodist Church by virtue of its Social Principles and the Constitutional provisions in the Methodist Discipline should be seen to be doing what it professes and affirms to stand for. Such profession and affirmation should not be empty words but should be expressed with positive action.

12. Do not let inane arguments such as “... the seniors should not fight to hold office and deprive younger members from holding office but should do other ministry work, this would open the floodgates to those age 70 and above to hold office, etc.” cloud the issue. Such arguments should be discarded. Every member, irrespective of age, should be involved in various ministries. The issue is whether or not the denial of a right because of age is justified in the light of the Methodist Social Principles and Constitutional provisions.

13. Thus the View from 3Score10 is not that senior members of the Methodist Church are clamouring to hold office but that the denial of a right because of age is sheer discrimination and a violation of human dignity. Slavery has been abolished long ago. Women have won the right to suffrage not very long ago. Shouldn’t the right to hold office be restored to the seniors in the Methodist Church now?
 
14. A member’s right to hold office is not an automatic assumption of office. Any member who desires to exercise the right to hold office is required to comply with the procedure laid down, such as being nominated and going through the process of election with other candidates.
 
15. Let not the Methodist Church shoot its own foot in the matter of Social Justice and Constitutional Rights of its members as laid down in the Methodist Discipline.

TRAC Methodist Seniors’ Fellowship Management Board