Decision Number 363

Decision

It is the decision of the Judicial Council that the Constitution provides a "like plan" that requires that any person elected and consecrated a bishop in The United Methodist Church must first have been an ordained elder and ministerial member in full connection in an Annual Conference. Therefore, to elect an unordained lay person to the episcopacy or to consecrate a lay person to the episcopacy would be unconstitutional. Lay persons, therefore, may not be elected or consecrated to the episcopacy.