Version History
Current published version
Today's Business, Issue 3. pp. 348-349. Revised published proposal.
Official Resolution Source Text
Resolution: 9-14A
Canonical number: 9-14
Committee: Structure and Administration
Source: Today's Business, Issue 3
Printed pages: pp. 348-349
PDF pages: 40-41
Version: revised, current-published-proposal
Source reference: Issue 3, pp. 348-349
Line numbers follow Today's Business, Issue 3, with numbering reset on each printed page, so delegates can compare this page with the official PDF.
Page 348
- To Amend Constitution Article XII 15 as to Call of Special District Conventions
- RESOLUTION 9-14A
- Overture 9-03 (CW, 451–52)
- Rationale
- In its periodic review of various district bylaws, the Commission on Constitutional Matters (CCM, “Removal of a
- District President from Office,” minutes of April 8–9, 2022) has noted the following:
- • Bylaw 1.5.8.1, introduced by 2016 Res. 12 -11, “To Establish a Procedure Based on Article XI A 2 for Removal
- from Office of Officers of the Synod or a District (other than the Synod or a District President)” (2016 Proc. ,
- 232–33), provides a procedure for removal of such officers, to the noted exclusion of the Synod or district
- president.
- • District bylaws typically contain provisions for a finding of temporary inability of a district president to serve
- (generally modeled on Bylaw 3.3.1.4) and sometimes attempt to conceive a procedure, in addition to the
- inapplicable one in Bylaw 1.5.8.1, to handle the removal of a district president from office for cause. Such a
- proposal necessarily treads on difficult ground, as the limitations on a board of directors’ authority (its dealing,
- generally, with legal and property matters, Bylaw 4.5.1, and not extending to supervision of the district president’s
- ecclesiastical duties) raise questions about whether it would be the appropriate body to act, and on what basis.
- • Perhaps the most natural option for a district to remove its president from office, without his being removed first
- from the roster of the Synod under Bylaw section 2.15, would be by the calling of a special convention to deal
- with the matter, as (Const. Art. XI A 2) “[t]he Synod at all times has the right to call its officers to account and, if
- circumstances require it, to remove them from office in accordance with Christian procedure” ( cited in “CCM
- Opinion re Removal of District Presidents from Office, Ag. 729, minutes of Feb. 21– 22, 1975). At the Synod
- level, a special session of the convention may be called “by three- fourths of the district presidents without the
- consent of the President” (Const. Art. VIII B 2), but there is no obvious alternative to the district president as
- “convener” of a special session of a district in Const. Art. XII 15.
- The CCM commented, “This presents something of a conundrum on the district level, should a district find that it needs
- to call its president to account and directly remove him from office for cause in a circumstance where removal from the
- roster of the Synod (which would trigger his removal from office) is not called for.”
- The CCM referred this matter to the Commission on Handbook (COH) and the two, through the Secretary, initiated
- discussion of the matter by the Council of Presidents, a discussion that resulted in no proposal. The COH found it
- incongruous with the provisions of Const. Art. XI A 1–4 that a district president might be able to prevent the body from
- convening that might call him urgently to give account of his stewardship. There being no other explicit means (other
- than the President of the Synod invoking the procedure of Bylaw section 2.15 to remove the district president from the
- roster of the Synod and, thereby, from office) for this to occur, the following constitutional amendment is proposed:
- Therefore be it
- Resolved, That Constitution Article XII 15 be amended as follows:
- PRESENT/PROPOSED WORDING
- Article XII Di stricts of the Synod and Their Regulation
- …
- 15. In cases of urgent necessity a special session of the district president is empowered to convene special sessions
- of his district; he must, however, previously have obtained consent of at least a majority of the voting members
Page 349
- of the district after having informed them and the President of the Synod of the purpose of the intended special
- session.may be called:
- a. by the district president with the consent of at least a majority of the voting members of the district;
- b. by the circuit forums in three -fourths of the circuits of the district without the consent of the district
- president; or
- c. by a majority of the vice-presidents and three-fourths of the circuit visitors of the district without the consent
- of the district president.
- All congregations and other members of the district and the President of the Synod must be notified 30 days in
- advance and told for what purpose this extra meeting is being convened.
- and be it further
- Resolved, That the above amendment be submitted, according to Const. Art. XV 4, to the congregations of the
- Synod for ratification.
