Memorandum Number 335

Petition of Calvin C. Master and Thirty-five Other Members of the Southern Asia Central Conference of The United Methodist Church Appealing as Unconstitutional Certain Actions of an Extra Session of Said Conference Relating to a Plan of Union for the Church of North India Recommended by COSMOS to the 1968 General Conference and Approved by That Body.

Statement of Facts

Statement of Preliminary Action

The Judicial Council on October 31, 1970, unanimously adopted the following motion:
MOVED that the Judicial Council provisionally finds that it has jurisdiction under Paragraph 1708 of the 1968 Discipline in the matter of the petition of Calvin C. Master and thirty-five other members of the Southern Asia Central Conference of The United Methodist Church to consider the constitutionality of certain actions of the extra session of said Central Conference held August 6-9, 1970, at Delhi, India, relating to matters affecting the proposed merger of Annual Conferences of said Central Conference with and into the Church of North India pursuant to a Plan of Union (Fourth Edition) recommended by COSMOS to the 1968 General Conference and approved by that body.

MOVED further that this provisional recognition of jurisdiction be subject to further consideration by the Judicial Council when a more complete record of jurisdictional facts shall have been provided;

MOVED further that interested parties be asked to furnish the Judicial Council with a complete record of the facts bearing on the actions of the Central Conference and its Annual Conferences of The Methodist Church in Southern Asia on the aforesaid Plan of Union and sufficiently comprehensive to permit us to deal with the substantative issues raised by the petition; also that we maintain this item on our docket for further action.