Decision Number 72

Decision

The portion of Paragraph 347 to be interpreted herein reads as follows:
"347. Any member in full connection who fails to complete the entire four years course of study within six years shall be located, unless extension of time shall be recommended by a two-thirds vote of the Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications and authorized by a two-thirds vote of the Annual Conference. In no case shall a person have a larger total than eight years in the course of study, and any person failing to complete the course within this eight-year period shall not be permitted to join a Conference again on trial."

By the specific terms of this Paragraph it applies solely to the four years course of study. The four years course of study is the subject matter of the Paragraph as indicated by the use of that term in the first sentence of the Paragraph. The course of study to which it refers is an entirety within itself as shown by use of the phrase "the entire four years of the course of study."

Furthermore, by the commonly accepted rules of grammatical construction, the phrases "the course of study" and "the course" appearing in the body of the Paragraph refer to the course of study which is the subject matter of the Paragraph. No reference is made in this Paragraph to the two years of graduate work required by Paragraph 323 of members of the Conference admitted under the three-fourths vote rule set out in that Paragraph. Paragraph 347 deals solely with the four years course of study; hence no other course of study can be read into it by construction or implication.

It will be noted that under Paragraph 347 six years are arbitrarily given, without penalty, in which to complete the four years course of study. If a member in full connection fails to complete this four years course of study in six years and the Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications and the Annual Conference fail to extend the time, the penalty is location: such member "shall be located."

If the Board and Conference grant the full two years extension, and at the end of the eight-year term the member has not completed the four years course of study, the penalty is not only location but such member "shall not be permitted to join a Conference again on trial."

In the case here under consideration it is undisputed that Warren Douglass Golden was a member in full connection of the Little Rock Annual Conference, and that he had completed the four years course of study in five years. It appears that he had complied with every requirement under Paragraph 347. That being the case, he was not subject to location under that Paragraph of the Discipline.

It is likewise undisputed that Warren Douglass Golden was admitted into the Little Rock Annual Conference under the three-fourths vote rule provided in Paragraph 323 of the Discipline. Under that Paragraph he was required to pursue the two years of graduate work. At the end of three years after he had completed the four years course of study, he had not completed these two years of graduate work required of him. It is undisputed that for a considerable portion of this time he was ill. The Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications, the presiding Bishop, and the Annual Conference recognized his affliction and even under the misconstruction that had been given to Paragraph 347 granted him a year of grace beyond what they considered to be the limit under such Paragraph. Thus he was given four full years in which to pursue and complete the two years of graduate work after he had completed the regular four years course of study required of all members of the Conference. Thus it appears that the Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications the Little Rock Annual Conference and Bishop Paul E. Martin the presiding Bishop in that area had shown Brother Golden great consideration and had dealt with him leniently and in a brotherly fashion with respect to these two years of graduate work. It is further evident from the report of the Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications to the 1949 session of the Annual Conference as hereinbefore set out that further extension of time would have been granted if some plausible or reasonable basis could have been found to avoid the effect of the interpretation of Paragraph 347 under which they were laboring.

Paragraph 323 of the Discipline provides that these two years of graduate work are to be taken under the direction of the Conference Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications. The Annual Conference, under the Constitution (Paragraph 22 of the Discipline), has the right and authority to vote "on all matters relating to the character and Conference relationship of its ministerial members." Under Paragraph 631 of the Discipline, the Annual Conference has the power and right to "make rules to govern its own procedure, provided that no Annual Conference shall make any rule contrary to the Constitution or to the powers granted it by the General Conference." Therefore, on recommendation of the Conference Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications, the Annual Conference could prescribe the time in which the two years of graduate work shall be completed. For dereliction of a member of the Conference in this respect it could, under other provisions of the Discipline, take appropriate action. In the opinion of the Judicial Council, however, in such a case Paragraph 347 would have no application.

It follows, therefore, that a member in full connection in an Annual Conference who has completed the four years course of study within six years cannot be automatically located under the provisions of Paragraph 347.

Under the record in this case and the undisputed facts as hereinbefore set out, it is the decision of the Judicial Council that the ruling of the Board of Ministerial Training and Qualifications concurred in by the presiding Bishop in the case of Warren Douglass Golden cannot be sustained. Such ruling of the presiding Bishop in the 1949 session of the Little Rock Annual Conference is hereby reversed.