[Dialogue] Fwd: [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 380-Bishop rules request for SMU library decision 'moot'

Fri Sep 12 17:52:30 EDT 2008

Sadly, the UM Bishops march to the tune of a very different drummer,  
or is it the same sad one?

One more stop, the UM Judicial Council.

George Holcombe
14900 Yellowleaf Tr.
Austin, TX 78728
Home: 512/252-2756
Mobile 512/294-5952
geowanda at earthlink.net

Begin forwarded message:

> From: NewsDesk <NewsDesk at UMCOM.ORG>
> Date: September 12, 2008 4:15:31 PM CDT
> To: UMNS-ALL-NEWS at UMCGROUPEMAIL.ORG
> Subject: [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 380-Bishop rules request for SMU  
> library decision 'moot'
> Reply-To: NewsDesk <NewsDesk at UMCOM.ORG>
>
> Bishop rules request for SMU library decision 'moot'
>
> Sep. 12, 2008    News media contact:   Linda  Green * (615)  
> 7425470*  Nashville {380}
>
> NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org
>
> A UMNS Report
> By Linda Green*
>
> A United Methodist bishop has ruled that a request for a decision of  
> law about Southern Methodist University's right to lease campus  
> property to the Bush Foundation is "improper, moot and hypothetical."
>
> Oklahoma Bishop Robert E. Hayes Jr. rendered the decision after  
> examining actions of the church's South Central Jurisdictional  
> Conference in favor of the private Dallas school's lease agreement  
> for the President George W. Bush Presidential Center. The  
> jurisdiction owns SMU, and the school's bylaws require the church to  
> approve the sale or lease of campus land.
>
> Conference delegates voted 158-118 on July 17 to affirm the lease  
> for the Bush presidential library, museum and policy institute. The  
> jurisdiction's executive committee, called the mission council,  
> initially gave the green light to the lease in March 2007, and  
> school officials approved the agreement last February. The lease  
> charges the Bush Foundation $1,000 for 99 years, renewable for up to  
> 250 years.
>
> Hayes, who presided during the jurisdictional vote, was asked by the  
> Rev. Jeannie Trevino-Teddlie, director of the Mexican-American  
> program at SMU's Perkins School of Theology, for a decision of law  
> on the lease.
>
> Specifically, Trevino-Teddlie asked: "Is the approval of the lease  
> of property of Southern Methodist University by the South Central  
> Jurisdiction and Southern Methodist University, at less than market  
> value, to the Bush Foundation for the purpose of establishing a  
> policy institute, in conflict with the articles of incorporation of  
> Southern Methodist University, the rules of the South Central  
> Jurisdiction and/or The Book of Discipline, specifically (Paragraph)  
> 2503.4, which requires all United Methodist property to be 'kept,  
> maintained … for the benefit of The United Methodist Church and  
> subject to the usages and the Discipline of The United Methodist  
> Church' and said lease would subsidize a specific political and  
> ideological point of view?"
>
> In his Aug. 12 ruling that was recently obtained by United Methodist  
> News Service, Hayes said the first portion of Trevino-Teddlie's  
> request goes beyond church law and involves secular, corporate and  
> real estate law. "I do not believe I have before me a proper request  
> for a ruling on church law," he wrote.
>
> Decision to be reviewed
>
> Decisions of law from bishops are automatically reviewed by the  
> United Methodist Judicial Council, the church's supreme court, and  
> Hayes has forwarded his ruling to that body for its decision.  
> However, as of Sept. 12, the issue had not been placed on the  
> council's docket for this October. After that, the Judicial Council  
> is scheduled to meet again in the spring of 2009.
>
> Trevino-Teddlie said she was disappointed but not surprised by  
> Hayes' ruling. She noted that most of the jurisdiction's bishops had  
> supported the actions of the mission council, which in a closed  
> executive session voted 10-4, with one abstention, in favor of the  
> lease.
>
> "It did not surprise me that Bishop Hayes would rule the way he  
> did," she said. "I look forward to the Judicial Council reviewing  
> the decision."
>
> Officials at SMU were pleased with Hayes' decision.
>
> Since "we followed established procedures in obtaining permission of  
> the mission council to lease the land in question, we obviously  
> concur with the bishop's decision," said Brad Cheves, the school's  
> vice president for development and external affairs.
>
> The library proposal has been debated since SMU was placed on the  
> Bush Foundation's short list of potential sites in December of 2006.  
> Critics have questioned the appropriateness of linking the Bush  
> presidency with the 11,000-student, United Methodist-founded school.  
> They argue that many policies of the Bush administration,  
> particularly the war in Iraq, are contrary to United Methodist  
> teaching.
>
> Library opponents have argued that the mission council did not  
> follow church procedure and that the matter should have gone before  
> the South Central Jurisdictional Conference, which meets once every  
> four years.
>
> Extensively debated
>
> In a Sept. 11 interview with UMNS, Hayes said the substance of  
> Trevino-Teddlie's request was not a question that would hinder the  
> continuation of the Bush library project. "It was a question on  
> whether SMU had the right to use it the way they did," he said.  "It  
> was not a direct dispute but whether the approval was in conflict  
> with the articles of incorporation of SMU."
>
> Hayes wrote that the request had been extensively debated by the  
> jurisdictional conference, and that the vote affirming the lease "is  
> in opposition to the position of the person submitting this request  
> for a Decision of Law." He stated that the conference did not concur  
> with other petitions on the SMU issue, including one referred by the  
> 2008 General Conference, the denomination's top legislative body.
>
> The bishop also ruled that the request for a decision of law was  
> framed in a manner that suggests "matters of purported fact that  
> seem to me to be hypothetical and speculative," he wrote.
>
> "The request for a decision of law is posed in a manner that asks if  
> things were done correctly," he told UMNS. "And they were.  
> Everything was in order."
>
> The jurisdictional conference vote affirmed that the regional  
> mission council, which conducts business on behalf of the conference  
> in between its sessions, was authorized to act on the lease.
>
> Hayes said that his "decision of law was mindful and respectful to  
> previous Judicial Council decisions regarding the right of trustees  
> to have unlimited power in deposition of real property."
>
> # # #
>
> *Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in  
> Nashville, Tenn.
>
> ********************
>
> United Methodist News Service
> Photos and stories also available at:
> http://umns.umc.org
>
>
>
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