Methodist conference expects dismissal in dispute with about 70 churches

A South Carolina judge is expected to dismiss cases brought by the United Methodist Church's South Carolina Conference against about 70 congregations that want to leave the denomination with their property, The Christian Post reports. The conference announced the update on Tuesday and said it learned of the ruling Monday. It said Circuit Court Judge Brian M. Gibbons "intends to issue an order dismissing the cases brought by the Conference and local United Methodist churches."

The conference said the final orders have not yet been written or entered, and that attorneys for the separating churches have been asked to prepare proposed orders for the judge to consider and sign. The conference said it is consulting legal counsel and plans to appeal, possibly all the way to the South Carolina Supreme Court. It said it had "long understood that, regardless of the trial court's decision, an appeal was likely." Bishop Leonard Fairley, quoted in the update, said, "There remains much ministry before us," and added, "People are hungry for the Gospel."

The Christian Post gives the background. In 2023 the South Carolina Annual Conference approved the disaffiliation votes of 113 congregations, among them Mt. Horeb United Methodist Church of Lexington, then the largest in the conference with approximately 5,000 members. Those departures were part of a wider split in which more than 7,500 mostly conservative churches left the denomination over its debate about LGBT issues. They exited under a temporary provision in the Book of Discipline, Paragraph 2553, which expired at the end of 2023.

In 2024 some churches tried to leave through Paragraph 2549, which lets a conference close a church property when it no longer fulfills its purpose. The United Methodist Judicial Council, the denomination's highest court, ruled in October 2024 that churches leaving over theological differences cannot use that paragraph. Litigation followed between the conference and nearly 70 churches. The Christian Post reports the conference claimed the congregations were leaving fraudulently and in violation of the trust clause, under which the denomination holds church property in trust rather than the local congregation owning it. Most of the cases were consolidated into one lawsuit, the congregations asked the court to dismiss it, and the conference filed a motion in February to deny that request.

Whatever the appeals courts decide, the people on both sides are brothers and sisters parting over deep convictions. Ephesians 4:3 calls believers to keep the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. Pray for the conference, for the departing congregations and for the pastors who must now shepherd people through this. Pray that they treat one another with grace.

Read Ephesians 4:3