South Carolina Judge Expected to Dismiss UMC Conference Suits Against Some 70 Churches Seeking to Leave
A South Carolina judge is expected to dismiss lawsuits brought by the United Methodist Church's South Carolina Conference against about 70 congregations seeking to leave the denomination with their properties, the conference said in an update this week. The conference said it learned on Monday that Circuit Court Judge Brian M. Gibbons intends to issue an order dismissing the cases; the final orders have not yet been written or entered, and attorneys for the separating churches have been asked to prepare proposed orders for the judge's consideration.
The conference said it is consulting legal counsel and plans to appeal, possibly as far as the South Carolina Supreme Court, noting that an appeal was likely regardless of the trial court's decision. "People are hungry for the Gospel," Bishop Leonard Fairley said in the update, adding that the conference will continue to pursue the legal avenues available while remaining focused on its mission.
The litigation is part of a broader schism in the United Methodist Church. In 2023 the South Carolina Annual Conference approved the disaffiliation of 113 congregations under Paragraph 2553 of the Book of Discipline, a temporary provision that expired at the end of 2023; more than 7,500 mostly conservative congregations have left the denomination nationwide amid debate over LGBT issues. In 2024 some churches exited through Paragraph 2549, which the conference argued was a fraudulent departure violating the denomination's trust clause, under which church property is held in trust for the denomination. The Judicial Council, the denomination's top court, ruled in October 2024 that churches seeking to leave over theological differences could not use Paragraph 2549, and most of the resulting cases were consolidated into a single lawsuit.
(Compiled from the UMC South Carolina Conference's official update and the Christian Post, October 14)
Published by GSM · USA (original Chinese edition)
Photo: 位于南卡罗来纳州哥伦比亚市的卫斯理联合卫理公会教堂，年议会总部所在地。图片来源：Wikimedia Commons，Eastward Gypsy 摄，CC BY-SA 4.0 授权
