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Alabama Supreme Court will not retry UMC split case

The Alabama Supreme Court announced Friday that it would not grant a request for a rehearing of its earlier ruling requiring disgruntled United Methodist churches to settle property disputes through the church's judicial system.

The court made its original ruling in May after more than 40 churches sued the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the UMC to force them to leave the denomination and take their property with them.

The United Methodist Court will hear the case in the fall.

The major split within the denomination came after the denomination voted earlier this year to lift bans on same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ+ people. A new denomination, the Global Methodist Church, was formed, which will maintain these bans.

In Alabama, about 555 churches have separated from the UMC since 2022, more than half of all UMC churches in the state. More than 7,000 churches have separated from the UMC statewide, about a quarter of the church.

The 40 Alabama churches argued that Bishop David Graves and his cabinet had conspired to “bide time” and delay the disqualification process beyond the deadline that would have given the churches the opportunity to move out and take their property with them.

The Montgomery District Court initially dismissed the lawsuit, citing the Establishment Clause of the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution, which prohibits courts from intervening in religious matters.

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“By adopting Section 2553 of the UMC's Book of Discipline, the UMC gave churches the option to leave the UMC and keep their property if they wished to withdraw 'in conscience'; the churches had a specific period of time to make their decision,” wrote Judge Tommy Bryan. “Deep into that period, the conference adopted a new requirement – one not explicitly included in the Book of Discipline – that made it more difficult for churches to withdraw under Section 2553. There is something It is extremely disturbing that the rules are being changed as the game progresses. I wonder if this process was fair.

“… However, since the churches' claim is based solely on paragraph 2553 of the UMC Book of Discipline, this case is an ecclesiastical matter over which we have no jurisdiction under existing case law.”

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