MARIETTA — A Cobb County judge ruled Tuesday that the United Methodist Church must allow 185 Georgia churches to vote on leaving the denomination.
“My ruling, to a limited extent, is that they do in fact have a right to call for a vote,” said Cobb Superior Court Senior Judge Stephen Schuster.
The decision came after Methodists spent Tuesday battling in court. It was the first hearing in a lawsuit between the churches and the body that governs them.
The churches, which include nine Cobb-based congregations, are suing the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. The dispute stems from the conference issuing a pause in the process through which local churches can leave the UMC denomination.
United Methodists are in the midst of a schism over social issues, namely same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ people.
UMC churches can disaffiliate from their denomination and retain assets, if they do so because they disagree with the denominational stance on LGBTQ participation in the church.
The process for disaffiliation is laid out in paragraph 2553 of the UMC’s church law, the Book of Discipline. That section, however, sunsets at the end of this year.
Last December, the North Georgia Conference of the UMC, which governs more than 600 churches, paused the disaffiliation process, citing a need to correct misinformation.
The plaintiffs asked Judge Schuster to issue an injunction lifting the pause and enabling local churches to vote on disaffiliation, and were granted that…
Read the full article here
