A judicial court of the United Methodist Church will take up the issue of clarifying how Alabama churches that want to leave may still be allowed to depart the denomination.

The United Methodist Judicial Council has released its docket of 10 items for its fall meeting.

Among them are requests from the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, where a group of more than 40 churches that wanted to leave the denomination claim the bishop “ran out the clock” on them, delaying their exit until a rule allowing them to leave and take property with them expired.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled that those churches would have to take their case to the church’s court, not state courts.

Guy’s Chapel, a 114-year-old church in Bay Minette, last month sued the Alabama-West Florida Conference in an effort to leave.

Briefs for the United Methodist Judicial Court docket items are due Aug. 23, and reply briefs are due Aug. 28. The church court plans to meet for deliberations in October in Los Angeles.

Most of the items request declaratory decisions — Judicial Council rulings that explain the meaning, application and effect of church law.

This year, the General Conference deleted Paragraph 2553, which expired at the end of 2023. That was the provision instituted by the 2019 General Conference that allowed churches to leave with their property if they met financial obligations and followed procedure.

About 7,600 churches, about a quarter of the denomination, left the United Methodist Church under that statute. About half of them have since joined another denomination, mostly the Global Methodist Church, a breakaway denomination launched in 2022 as a refuge for conservative Methodists that would keep a traditional stance against same-sex marriage.

Statewide in Alabama, more than half of United Methodist congregations disaffiliated – about 555 churches. Most of those departures have taken place since 2022.

The churches that disaffiliated from the United Methodist Church had opposed same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ clergy, which the United Methodist Church now supports after successful votes to update its policies on those issues at the most recent General Conference earlier this year in Charlotte, N.C.

Departures from the Alabama-West Florida Conference were complicated by a tightening of rules on disaffiliation, and 45 churches filed a lawsuit against the conference saying it tried to “run out the clock” before the disaffiliation deadline to prevent them from leaving.

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled against their appeal, saying they had to take the case to the church court.

There were 193 churches that disaffiliated from the Alabama-West Florida Conference on May 7, 2023, and eight more on Nov. 12.

A Dothan megachurch that went independent sued the conference saying it owed no money to leave. The State Supreme Court denied the United Methodist Church’s request that lawsuit be dismissed.

Both Kentucky and the Alabama-West Florida Conference asked the Judicial Council whether Paragraph 2549, which deals with church closures, or some other procedure, can be used for churches that still want to leave and take their property with them.

The Alabama-West Florida Conference also asked the Judicial Council rule on allowing a church council to propose a church’s closure.

Some churches that want to leave have asked the conference to close down their churches – and let them buy the property back, which would be a similar outcome to churches that negotiated to pay an exit fee to keep their property and leave the denomination.

Bishop Jonathan Holston will be taking over leadership of both the North Alabama Conference and the Alabama-West Florida Conference, effective Sept. 1.

Bishop David Graves, currently head of the Alabama-West Florida Conference, will oversee the Kentucky-Tennessee Conference, taking over for Bishop Bill McAlilly, who is retiring after recovering last year from a near fatal car accident.