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The primary considerations are the manner in which the minister was engaged, and the character of the rules or terms governing his or her service. Ratio |
But, as with all exercises in contractual construction, these documents and any other admissible evidence on the parties intentions fall to be construed against their factual background. Ratio |
Part of that background is the fundamentally spiritual purpose of the functions of a minister of religion. Ratio |
The constitution and standing orders of the Methodist Church Ratio |
Methodist ministers have no written contract of employment. Ratio |
Their relationship with the Church is governed by its constitution, which is contained in the Deed of Union, by the standing orders of the Methodist Conference, and by such specific arrangements (if any) as may have been made with a particular minister. Ratio |
It is convenient to deal first with the position of the Methodist ministry generally, before examining any special arrangements with Ms Preston. Ratio |
Ms Rose QC, who appeared for the President of the Methodist Conference, invited us to approach these instruments on the footing that in the absence of anything in them amounting to an express contract of employment, it was necessary to imply one. ARG |
For this purpose, she submitted, the test was one of necessity. ARG |
If the essential features of the arrangements described in the Deed of Union and the standing orders were capable of being explained without reference to an employment relationship, then no such relationship should be held to exist. ARG |
I reject this submission for three reasons. Ratio |
In the first place, in modern conditions, against the background of the broad schemes of statutory protection of employees, it should not readily be assumed that those who are engaged to perform work and receive remuneration intend to forgo the benefits of that protection, even where the work is of a spiritual characte... |
Secondly, as Lord Hope pointed out in Percy, at para 107 the practical effect of the suggested approach is to reintroduce the presumption of non-contractual status in the case of ministers of religion, which he, along with the majority in that case rejected in principle. Ratio |
Third, whatever the legal classification of a Methodist ministers relationship with his Church, it is not sensible to regard it as implied. Ratio |
It is documented in great detail in the Deed of Union and the standing orders. Ratio |
The question is whether the incidents of the relationship described in those documents, properly analysed, are characteristic of a contract and, if so, whether it is a contract of employment. Ratio |
Necessity does not come into it. Ratio |
The Deed of Union, in its original form, was agreed in 1932 when the Wesleyan Methodist Church united with the Primitive Methodist Church and the United Methodist Church and other Methodist denominations to form the Methodist Church of Great Britain. Ratio |
The governing body of the Church is the Conference, which meets annually and transacts business in two sessions, the Representative Session and the Ministerial Session. Ratio |
The Representative Session comprises designated office-holders and representatives. Ratio |
The Ministerial Session comprises those members of the Representative Session who are ministers, together with certain other categories of ministers. Ratio |
The senior officer of the Church is the President of the Conference, who is designated as such by a vote of the previous Conference. Ratio |
Detailed provision is made for every aspect of the government of the Church by standing orders made by the Conference. Ratio |
For the purposes of its ministry, the Church is divided into geographical circuits, each of which is governed by its Circuit Meeting, Circuit Stewards, and committees appointed for special purposes. Ratio |
The Church adheres to the doctrine of the priesthood of all believers. STA |
Section 2, clause 4 of the Deed of Union records, Christs ministers in the church are stewards in the household of God and shepherds of his flock. STA |
Some are called and ordained to this sole occupation and have a principal and directing part in these great duties but they hold no priesthood differing in kind from that which is common to all the Lords people and they have no exclusive title to the preaching of the gospel or the care of souls. STA |
Section 7, clause 23(h) of the Deed of Union provides that to become a minister a candidate must first obtain the judgment of the Ministerial Session that he or she is fit to be admitted into full connexion and ordination. STA |
The Representative Session must then resolve that he or she is to be admitted and ordained. STA |
The candidate is then ordained by laying on of hands. STA |
Standing order 700(2) provides that [b]y receiving persons into full connexion as Methodist ministers the Conference enters into a covenant relationship with them in which they are held accountable by the Church in respect of their ministry and Christian discipleship, and are accounted for by the Church in respect of t... |
Standing order 740(1)(a) provides that [i]n this relationship they accept a common discipline of stationing and collegially exercise pastoral responsibility for the Church. STA |
Stationing is a critical part of the management of the Church. STA |
It is the formal act by which a minister is assigned to particular duties. STA |
Section 20 of the Deed of Union requires the Conference annually to station ministers and probationers, although by section 29 they may be stationed between Conferences by the current President of the Conference. STA |
The standing orders make detailed provision for the process by which a minister is stationed. STA |
The first stage is an invitation from a Circuit, which is issued by the Circuit Invitation Committee, on the proposal of the Stewards: see standing order 540. STA |
The next stage is that current invitations issued by the Circuits are reported to the Stationing Committee of the Conference under standing order 782 once a year by an appointed date. STA |
This body then makes recommendations to the Representative Session of the next Conference. STA |
It is the Conference which makes the final decision: see standing order 322. STA |
Standing order 700(1) provides that [m]inisters are ordained to a life-long presbyteral ministry of word, sacrament and pastoral responsibility in the Church of God which they fulfil in various capacities and to a varying extent throughout their lives. STA |
It is clear that the life-long character of the ministry is more than just an aspiration. STA |
A minister can cease to be in full connexion only in limited circumstances, none of which is wholly dependent on his or her wishes. STA |
Under standing order 760, he or she may send a notice of resignation to the President of the Conference, but it is up to the President, advised by a special committee, to decide whether to accept it. STA |
Otherwise, a minister may cease to be in full connexion if a disciplinary charge is brought and a Disciplinary Committee exercises its power under standing order 1134 to decide that he or she shall cease to be a minister... in full connexion. STA |
It should be noted that the disciplinary scheme is the same for ministers and lay members, so far as the distinction is meaningful in a church in which the ministry is not a distinct order or class. STA |
Standing order 1100(3)(ii) provides that there should be no difference in principle between ordained and lay people in the way in which complaints against them are dealt with. STA |
For as long as a minister remains in full connexion he or she must be stationed, save in two cases. Ratio |
The first is that one of the exceptions in standing order 774 applies, i.e. the minister receives a discretionary exemption from the Ministerial Session of the Conference, or is required to be without appointment by the Stationing Committee on the ground that no appointment can be found. Ratio |
The second is that they are permitted by the Ministerial Session of the Conference to become supernumeraries (i.e. retire) under standing order 790 on account of their age, length of service or ill-health or on compassionate grounds. Ratio |
Retirement is, however, a relative term. Ratio |
Even supernumerary ministers are required under standing order 792 to continue to exercise their ministry as he or she is able. Ratio |
All ministers in full connexion who are not permitted to be without appointment under one of these provisions, are defined by section 1 of the Deed of Union as being in the active work. Ratio |
Section 80 of the standing orders provides for the support and maintenance of ministers. STA |
Under standing order 801, all ministers in active work and all stationed probationers are entitled to a stipend throughout their ministry, including periods of unlimited duration when they may be unable to perform their duties on account of illness or injury. STA |
In addition, they are entitled under standing order 803 to a manse to serve as a home and as a base for their ministry. STA |
Neither the stipend nor the manse are regarded by the Methodist Church as the consideration for the services of its ministers. STA |
They regard them as a method of providing the material support to the minister without which he or she could not serve God. STA |
In the Churchs view, the sale of a ministers services in a labour market would be objectionable, as being incompatible with the spiritual character of their ministry. STA |
If the arrangements governing the ministry described in the Deed of Union and the standing orders are a contract between the minister in that capacity and the Methodist Church, then it seems to me inevitable that they must be classified as a contract of employment. Ratio |
But that only increases the difficulty of regarding them as a contract at all. Ratio |
Three points seem to me to be cumulatively decisive. Ratio |
First, the manner in which a minister is engaged is incapable of being analysed in terms of contractual formation. Ratio |
Neither the admission of a minister to full connexion nor his or her ordination are themselves contracts. Ratio |
Thereafter, the ministers duties are not consensual. Ratio |
They depend on the unilateral decisions of the Conference. Ratio |
Secondly, the stipend and the manse are due to the minister by virtue only of his or her admission into full connexion and ordination. Ratio |
While he or she remains in full connexion and in the active life, these benefits continue even in the event of sickness or injury, unless he or she is given leave of absence or retires. Ratio |
In addition to the stipend and the manse, the minister has certain procedural rights derived from the disciplinary scheme of the Deed of Union and the standing orders, which determine the manner in which he or she may be suspended or removed from ministerial duties. Ratio |
But the disciplinary scheme is the same for all members of the Church whether they are ministers or ordinary lay members. Ratio |
Third, the relationship between the minister and the Church is not terminable except by the decision of the Conference or its Stationing Committee or a disciplinary committee. Ratio |
There is no unilateral right to resign, even on notice. Ratio |
I conclude that the ministry described in these instruments is a vocation, by which candidates submit themselves to the discipline of the Church for life. Ratio |
Unless some special arrangement is made with a particular minister, the rights and duties of ministers arise, as it seems to me, entirely from their status in the constitution of the Church and not from any contract. Ratio |
Ms Prestons ministry Ratio |
Conscious of the difficulties posed by the Deed of Union and the standing orders, Mr Bowers QC (who appeared for Ms Preston) founded his case mainly on the particular circumstances in which his client came to be stationed at the Redruth Circuit. Ratio |
These, he suggested, did amount to a special arrangement with his client, analogous to the one which was held to be contractual by the majority in Percy. Ratio |
The facts are that Ms Preston was initially stationed by the Conference as a probationer minister in Taunton Circuit in September 2001. FAC |
She was admitted to full connexion by the 2003 Conference and thereupon ordained. FAC |
She was then stationed as a full minister by the same Conference at the Taunton Circuit where she had been working as a probationer for the past two years. FAC |
In November 2005, she was invited by the Invitation Committee of the Redruth Circuit to become a Superintendent Minister there. FAC |
A Superintendent Minister is the senior minister of a circuit with a number of other ministers. FAC |
The Redruth Circuit Steward wrote to her on 19 November 2005 confirming the invitation in the following terms: Following our telephone conversation last Monday, I can confirm the invitation made by the Redruth Methodist Circuit to offer you the position of Superintendent Minister commencing September 2006 for a period ... |
On 22 November, Ms Preston replied: Many thanks for your letter officially inviting me to serve as Superintendant Minister in the Redruth Circuit from September 2006. FAC |
I write to confirm my acceptance of the invitation and express my thanks to the invitation committee. FAC |
In other contexts, an exchange of letters like this one might well have given rise to a contract. Ratio |
The difficulty here is that the exchange occurred within the framework of the standing orders, from which it is clear that it was only part of a much longer procedure. Ratio |
Under the standing orders, the circuits have no power to make an appointment. Ratio |
The circuits invitation is no more than a proposal to the Conference Stationing Committee that they should recommend the candidate to the Conference for stationing in their circuit. Ratio |
While every effort is made to meet the preferences of both circuits and ministers, the decision is reserved to the Conference. Ratio |
It may be delegated only to the President of the Conference, and then only if the appointment has to be made between Conferences. Ratio |
The relevant relationship is between the minister and the Conference, which may move him or her from one circuit to another even before the end of the period for which the circuit invited the candidate to serve. Ratio |
There is no fresh relationship with each invitation or even with each appointment. Ratio |
It follows that Ms Preston was serving as a minister at Redruth not pursuant to the five-year relationship envisaged in the exchange of letters, but pursuant to the life-long relationship into which she had already entered two years before the exchange of letters, when she was ordained. Ratio |
The nature of that relationship was wholly dependent on the Deed of Union and standing orders under which she took that step. Ratio |
It makes no difference to this analysis that Ms Preston was appointed as a Superintendant Minister at Redruth. Ratio |
That was simply the role for which she was stationed by the Conference. Ratio |
The decisions of the Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal RLC |
The Employment Appeal Tribunal and the Court of Appeal considered that Ms Preston was an employee, essentially because a Methodist minister served under arrangements of a kind which, in the words of Lord Nicholls in Percy, at para 24, on their face are to be expected to give rise to legally binding obligations. RLC |
This was because they provided for the ministers duties, remuneration, accommodation, and the like. RLC |
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