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By Erik Alsgaard & Melissa Lauber
UMConnection Staff

The bishop, along with Conference Chancellor Tom Starnes, and several other conference leaders testified before committees of the state Senate and House of Delegates 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.

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.

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 of Maryland law,” said the Rev. Antoine Love, chair of the conference trustees, “give clear public notice of the Conference’s interest in local church property, improve certainty of property ownership, clarify the history of denominational 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.

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,” he said.

In addition to the trust clause, United Methodists lent their voices to thousands of Maryland workers who do not have access to paid sick leave. More than 700,000 people who live in Maryland do not have access to this benefit, and across the United States, about 40 percent of all private-sector workers lack it; the level reaches 80 percent of low-wage or minimum wage workers who do not earn paid sick days.

Last year, the Baltimore-Washington Conference passed a resolution in support of legislation that would require employers to allow workers to earn a limited number of annual paid sick days. The Maryland State Assembly is considering a bill — HB 968 — that would create just such a benefit.

At its annual Legislative Day gathering Feb. 19, sponsored by the Conference United Methodist Women and Conference Board of Church and Society, more than 60 United Methodists came to Asbury UMC in Annapolis to learn more about HB 968 and to be trained before they visited state lawmakers in the Capitol.

Melissa Broome, Senior Policy Advocate with the Job Opportunities Task Force, told the group that the United States is the only industrialized country in the world that does not mandate paid sick leave for employees.

Normally at Legislative Day, advocates would work on two or three bills before lawmakers, said Sherie Koob, chair of the BWC Board of Church and Society and a Guide in the Western Region. This year, however, the group was working on just this one bill.

Bishop Matthews brought devotions for the group, encouraging them to continue to be a sign of the church.

“Go forth,” he said, “be that sign of the church; be a voice for those who are often not heard in Annapolis. It is up to people like you and me to make the slope a little bit easier to climb.”

 “Today, you will be witnessing on behalf of the church,” the bishop said. “Let this day be a time to remember that we are heirs to the throne, not because of what we’ve done, but because of what Christ has done for us.”