Decision No. 2/2005

 

1.     Issue

Whether Para.16, Article 1 of the Book of Discipline of the Methodist Church in Malaysia is silent on the effective date for reckoning of church membership of a local church to determine the number of lay delegates to an Annual Conference Session.

 

            

2.     Coram

 Mr. Hii Ching Chiong (President)

      Rev. Ting Moy Hong (Vice President)

      Mr. Desmond Wee Tian Peng (Secretary)

      Rev. Steward Damat

      Rev. Dr. Ezra Kok

      Mrs. M.S. Daphne Sebastian

      Rev. Yau Kah Fatt

      Mr. Tan Foong Luen

 

In the presence of

            Mr.Anthony Row and Mr. V. Tharumaraj, both as counsel for the Petitioner.

 

 

3.     Jurisdiction

The Judicial Council has jurisdiction under paragraph 714 of the Methodist Discipline, 2004 (hereinafter referred to as the “Discipline”).

 

4.     Statement of Facts

A)    The Petitioner is Rev. P. Tevaraji, the President of the Tamil Annual Conference of the Methodist Church in Malaysia.

 

B)     The Petitioner is seeking the declaration in Paragraph (E) hereunder in matter pertaining to Para. 16, Article 1 of the Discipline.

 

C)    The Methodist Book of Discipline, 1996, Para. 16 Article 1 paragraph 2 provides as follows:

 

“A local church shall be entitled to at least one lay delegate. However, where a local church has more than one minister in full connection it shall be entitled to one lay delegate for every minister in full connection. Moreover, for every 200 members, or part thereof, in excess of the first 200 members it shall be entitled to one additional lay delegate. Nevertheless a local church may have a maximum of only three lay delegates on the basis of church membership, unless the church has more than three ministers in full connection.”

 

D)  (1)  In the Tamil Annual Conference (TAC) the local churches submit their official statistical data to the Annual Conference Statistician as follows:

 

1.                  For the year ending 31^st December of the “previous” year.

2.                  For the mid-year ending 30^th June of the “current” year.

 

The above dates for submission of official statistics were agreed upon by a TAC decision. All local churches abide by them and submit statistical data as such.

 

The statistical data provided by the local churches include membership details of their churches as reckoned for the period as listed above.

 

D)  (2)  The Second Local Conferences wherein the delegates to the Annual Conferences are elected are held at varying times within the TAC. This is after June 30^th and before the Tamil Annual Conference Session as required by the Discipline.

 

D)  (3)  The Tamil Methodist Church Sentul of the TAC held its Second Local Conference on October 05, 2005 where it showed an increase in its full membership when compared with the figure submitted to the Conference Statistician as at June 30, 2005.

            This increase, if taken into account, would result in the local church being eligible for an additional lay delegate to the 30^th Session of the Tamil Annual Conference as seen below:

Date	Full Members	Lay Delegates
30th, June, 2005	379	2
5th October, 2005	405	3

 

D)  (4)  i) The District Superintendent, whilst chairing the Second Local Conference of this church, held the view that the full membership as reported on the date of the Second Conference, in this case October 05, 2005, should determine the number of eligible delegates to represent the local church. However he also drew caution that the membership details as at 30^th June, and which was submitted by the local church to the Annual Conference for its official statistics could well be the determining factor for the number of eligible lay delegates.

          He subsequently referred the matter to the TAC Executive Board for advice.

 

            ii)  A majority of the Executive Board agreed that June 30^th was the implied date for TAC. It was the common date agreed to by all local churches for the calculation and submission of their official “mid-year” church membership to the Annual Conference. It was also the date most commonly used by the local churches in TAC for reckoning their delegate count.

           

            iii)  Nevertheless, as it could have implications in the decision making process of the Annual Conference, it was decided to refer the matter to the Judicial Council.

 

E)        The  Petitioner therefore seeks the following declaratory decision:

 

1)      That Para. 16 of the Methodist Discipline is “silent” on the effective date for the reckoning of church membership of a local church to determine the number of its lay delegates to an Annual Conference Session.

 

2)      a)  That if E (1) is true, then any Annual Conference is free to set its own date for determining the total full membership of the local church.

b)  Further, if the Annual Conference had neither explicitly set nor implied such a date, then any Local Conference within that Annual Conference is equally free to set its own date to determine that local church’s membership.

 

3)      That if E (1) is not true, meaning that the provisions of Para 16 is not “silent”, but has an implied date.

4)      Where the date is implied as in E (3) above or as in E (2) (b) above where the Annual Conference had not explicitly set the date then which, if any, of these dates is that implied date for TAC?

 

a)  1^st January (Based on year-end reporting of statistical data and thereby a common date for all local churches within TAC)

b)  30^th June (Based on mid-year reporting of statistical data and thereby a common date for all local churches within TAC)

c)  The date of the Second Local Conference for that particular local church.

 

5. ANALYSIS

            During the submission of the case, counsel for the Petitioner, Mr. Anthony Row agreed with the Council that Para 545 and Para 16 Article 1 of the Methodist Book of  Discipline were silent on the effective date for reckoning of church membership of a local church to determine the number of lay delegates of an Annual Conference.

           

            Mr. Tharumaraj informed the Council that the Petitioner intends to adopt rules and regulations not in conflict with the Methodist Book of Discipline and since there is no uniformity of dates, he suggested that the Discipline be amended to include a uniform date as the effective date for determining the membership.

 

            The secretary of the Judicial Council informed the Counsel that the jurisdiction of the Judicial Council is to interpret the law and not to take on the role of a Legislature when the law is silent on the effective date.

 

6. DECISION

The Judicial Council unanimously made the following decision:-

 

That since there are no provisions under the Methodist Discipline on the effective date for reckoning of church membership of a local church to determine the number of its lay delegates to an Annual Conference Session, the Council is not empowered to make a declaratory decision on the Petition and it is agreed that the matter be reverted to the Annual Conference to decide on the effective date.

 

 

Dated 5^th day of November, 2005

 

 

Hii Ching Chiong               Rev. Ting Moy Hong              Desmond Wee Tian Peng

 

Rev. Steward Damat           Rev. Dr. Ezra Kok                   M.S. Daphne Sebastian

 

   Rev. Yau Kah Fatt               Tan Foong Luen