Dirty Alabama-West Florida United Methodist Deal

In the church split wars it is hard to imagine dirty dealings on a par with what went on during the Episcopal and Anglican conflict. The United Methodists (UMC) have pulled a move that would make Episcopalians proud.

From the Christian Post,

In 2019, at a special session of the General Conference, the UMC added a temporary measure to the Book of Discipline known as paragraph 2553, which created a process for churches to leave the denomination due to its decades-long debate over LGBT issues.

From 2019 to 2023, approximately 7,500 congregations left the UMC, with most of them affiliating with the recently launched theologically conservative Global Methodist Church.

According to numbers compiled by UM News, 248 congregations based in the Alabama-West Florida Conference were granted disaffiliation during that four-year time period.

In October 2023, 42 churches filed suit against the Alabama-West Florida Conference, arguing that the conference was wrongfully delaying the dismissal process.

“After laying out the plan by which Plaintiffs could disaffiliate with their property and invoking Plaintiffs’ reliance on that plan, Defendants have now revoked that plan and are attempting to prevent their disaffiliation, exercising leverage over Plaintiffs by holding their church buildings and property hostage,” the lawsuit claimed.

A couple of weeks later, however, the Montgomery County Circuit Court ruled against the departing congregations, arguing that, as a secular court, it held no jurisdiction in the matter.

And finally the Supreme Court of Alabama chimes in, 

Alabama Supreme Court rules against 44 churches trying to leave the UMC

“But the churches' central claims turn entirely on the interpretation of [paragraph] 2553 and whether their efforts to leave the UMC were consistent with that church law. Under existing First Amendment law and our precedent, that interpretive issue constitutes an ecclesiastical question that courts do not have jurisdiction to decide.”

Pray for those congregations that they wipe the dust from their feet and find alternative worship spaces.  

We have seen some lateral movement locally in the form of UMC members joining our ACNA church.