United Methodist churches who sued to disaffiliate file appeal to state Supreme Court
Forty-five United Methodist congregations in south Alabama and the Florida panhandle that filed a lawsuit against Bishop David Graves and the Alabama-West Florida Conference because they were not allowed to disaffiliate from the denomination by an end-of-year deadline have appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court.
The appeal was filed Nov. 13, after Montgomery Circuit Judge Brooke E. Reid dismissed the plaintiffs’ request for a temporary restraining order, saying it was an internal church matter and the court did not have jurisdiction.
The Supreme Court did not grant a request for an emergency review, but plaintiffs’ attorney Jonathan Baile told AL.com he hoped that the state’s highest court will still rule in favor of the churches to “keep the churches’ right to disaffiliation from being taken from them.”
The lawsuit claimed Bishop Graves has delayed the disaffiliation process and won’t let the 45 churches leave the denomination by the end of the year. In June, the Alabama-West Florida Conference called for loyalty from leaders and tightened the requirements for disaffiliation.
After Reid’s ruling, the Alabama-West Florida Conference released a statement:
“A hearing was held on Wednesday, November 8, 2023, in the Montgomery County Circuit Court,” it said. “In their complaint, the plaintiffs asked the Montgomery County Circuit Court to decide matters that would have required it to interpret the United Methodist Book of Discipline and church doctrine. Relying upon principles enshrined in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution and long standing rulings of law by the United States Supreme Court and Supreme Court of Alabama, the Court held that it lacked jurisdiction to interpret church doctrine, and it dismissed the case.”
Judge Reid’s ruling on Nov. 10 said, “The Court is without jurisdiction to rule on such issues because the relief sought by Plaintiffs would require the Court to interpret a provision of the Book of Discipline intertwined with church doctrine.”
Baile, attorney for the plaintiffs, said that although Reid declined their request for a restraining order, “Judge Reid clearly found factually that our clients (the churches) were harmed by the inequitable actions of the conference,” he wrote to AL.com. “From her ruling, you can see that she found that the Alabama West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church (1) created a rule, (2) used the rule to remove your right to vote, and (3) barred the churches from disaffiliation. The testimony from the churches was very compelling.”
The lawsuit, filed on Oct. 31 in Montgomery County Circuit Court by 42 churches before three more joined, names Graves and his cabinet as defendants, saying the bishop is trying to “run out the clock” by not letting them leave the denomination and take their property with them as allowed by church law by Dec. 31.
Among the churches named in the lawsuit as seeking to leave are Aldersgate of Montgomery, Armstrong of Auburn, Black Creek, Blountstown, Spanish Fort, Shalimar, Loachapoka, Flomaton, Crawford, Cypress, Daleville, Elmore, Elba, Epworth, Demopolis, Cottage Hill in Cantonment, Gulfview in Panama City, First United Methodist Church of Greenville, First Church of Mexico Beach, First Church of Fort Walton, Gulfview and Theodore.
The most recent disaffiliation vote was held on Nov. 12, when eight churches including one of Mobile’s largest, the 4,936-member Christ Church, disaffiliated. Last year, what had been the state’s largest United Methodist church, the 7,000-member Frazer Memorial in Montgomery, disaffiliated and joined a more theologically conservative denomination, the Free Methodist Church.
That brought the total of churches disaffiliating from the Alabama-West Florida Conference to 248. In the North Alabama Conference, 348 churches have disaffiliated. Both conferences had more than 600 member churches before the disaffiliations.
Because of a continuing denominational feud over the denomination’s ban on same-sex marriage and ordination of openly practicing gay clergy, the General Conference adopted guidelines for churches to leave the denomination and take their property with them after meeting financial requirements.
Most of the churches that have disaffiliated have either become independent or joined more conservative denominations where traditional Christian bans on same-sex marriage are not up for debate, such as the new Global Methodist Church founded last year to welcome defecting former United Methodists.
Although the United Methodist Church still holds its traditional stance banning same-sex marriage and ordaining openly gay clergy, decades of fighting on the issue prompted many conservatives to leave when a door was opened clearing the way for them to take church property with them.
Graves has welcomed all those from the departing churches who want to stay United Methodist to attend a remaining church or put their names on a general church roll to be matched with a United Methodist church in the future. “We are working to start new places of worship,” Graves said.
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