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Bishop Marcus Matthews and other Baltimore-Washington Conference leaders testified before the Judicial Proceedings Committee of the Maryland State Senate Feb. 20 in an effort to preserve state support of the trust clause of The United Methodist Church.

The trust clause, outlined in paragraphs 2501 and 2503 of the 2012 Book of Discipline, states that while local churches own and upkeep properties, they do so holding them “in trust” for the benefit of the entire denomination. Established in 1797 by Methodism's founder, John Wesley, the trust clause is intended to ensure that local churches are both held accountable to and benefit from their connection with the denomination.

During this legislative session in Annapolis, Senator C. Anthony Muse and Representative Aisha Braveboy introduced SB 347 and HB 840 in an attempt to remove language supporting the trust clause that appears in Maryland Law. Muse is a former clergy member of the Baltimore-Washington Conference.

Conference Chancellor Tom Starnes, Bishop Matthews, the Rev. Antoine Love, Conference Chair of the Board of Trustees, and Frederick District Superintendent, the Rev. Edgardo Rivera, spoke against repealing Sections 5-326 and 5-237.

Matthews explained to the legislators that United Methodists have a polity and a structure that is "connectional." It is not hierarchical, with centralized power, like the Roman Catholic Church, he said, nor is it congregational, like Baptists, where congregations are almost entirely autonomous.

"The trust clause ensures that all the goods of the body would be held in trust for the benefit of all the members, and all the branches would be kept connected with the true vine that they might bear great fruit," Matthews said. "The trust clause, then, is all about connectivity, not power or authority. ... It is about the many members forming one body."

While church law is clear on the issue of property returning to the Conference if a congregation chooses to leave the denomination, having Maryland law uphold the trust clause provides clarity about ownership and helps avoid wasteful litigation, Matthews said.

"Sections 5-326 and 5-327," said Love, "give clear public notice of the Conference's interest in local church property, improve certainty of property ownership, clarify the history of denomination mergers that have resulted in The United Methodist Church we know today, and help avoid or speed up wasteful litigation."

Love and the bishop also disputed allegations from some of the witnesses at the Senate committee hearing that the conference has aggressively pursued a strategy of eliminating small churches. "This is simply untrue," said Matthews, who noted that members of White Rock UMC would be welcomed "back into the fold" whenever they wished.

White Rock left the denomination two years ago, and its pastor, the Rev. Doug Sands, has spoken out against the trust clause in two previous sessions of the Maryland General Assembly.

He and Muse have been asking for the repeal of these laws, citing a need for the separation of church and state, and the unnecessary nature of singling out The United Methodist Church for special protection under state law. "Return a measure of religious freedom to the Free State," Sands urged the legislators.

He also expressed his frustration that a church founded by ex-slaves in 1868, and improved and maintained by their descendents should remain the property of The United Methodist Church when its members chose to sever ties with the denomination.

Starnes, who serves as an attorney for the Baltimore-Washington Conference, pointed out that the original deed drafted and signed by these ex-slaves charges the church trustees to hold the church in trust in perpetuity for future generations of Methodists.

The Rev. David Wentz, pastor of Trinity UMC in Annapolis also testified to this point, saying, "The trust clause is part of covenant we make with one another. It is at the heart of how we feel called to practice our religion."

Without the trust clause, Wentz argued, there would be nothing to keep some charismatic maverick from coming into a church, winning the hearts and souls of 51 percent of the congregation, and walking away with the building.

Sections 5-326 and 5-327 have been unchanged since 1953, when they became a part of Maryland law. Changing them would be wrong, said Starnes. They are "legitimate and perfectly constitutional mechanisms of affirming and enforcing the property interests of religious associations, pursuant to the rules that the religious association and its members have adopted to govern themselves."

The House of Delegates Committee on Economic will consider a similar bill, HB840, to repeal "Religious Corporations - Laws Governing Assets of The United Methodist Church,” on Thursday, Feb. 26, at 1 p.m.

For more information on the trust clause and The United Methodist Church, visit www.bwcumc.org/intrust.

To express your opposition to HB 840 and SB 347, contact your state legislator. For a directory of legislators, click here. http://mgaleg.maryland.gov/webmga/frmmain.aspx?pid=legisrpage&tab=subject6.