BY DAN HILDEBRAN
Telegraph Staff Writer
STARKE— A circuit judge dismissed a lawsuit against the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church brought by Lawtey’s Grace United Methodist Church and other congregations.
Judge George Wright wrote in a 15-page order that the present law in the State of Florida requires a secular court to defer to the decision of the highest ecclesiastical body regarding intra-church property disputes.
Last July, 106 Florida churches sued the conference seeking to leave the United Methodist Church without having to pay penalties outlined in the denomination’s Book of Discipline.
The congregations were seeking to separate themselves from the Florida Conference because of what they claimed was the latter’s acceptance of same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.
The official position of the Florida Conference, as outlined in the Book of Discipline, is that homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. The same document prohibits clergy from officiating same-sex weddings and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.
However, the plaintiffs asserted in their complaint that Bishop Kenneth H. Carter, who leads the statewide organization, failed to enforce the prohibitions outlined in the Book of Discipline.
They cited an openly gay St. Petersburg bishop and a St. Petersburg pastor who officiated a same-sex wedding to support their claims.
The congregations claimed that the statewide body forced them to pay exorbitant costs to leave the denomination with their properties.
In a Feb. 21 hearing in Starke, lawyers for the conference argued that the ecclesiastical abstention doctrine deprives the circuit court of jurisdiction over the dispute between the conference and the congregations.
“The U.S. Supreme Court has held that the First Amendment prohibits state interference not only into matters of faith and doctrine but also ‘matters of church government,’” wrote lawyers for the conference in a motion to dismiss. “The First Amendment protects the authority of religious institutions ‘with respect to internal management decisions that are essential to the institution’s central mission.’”
Wright wrote that Florida is among the minority of states that use the mandatory deference approach, which requires courts to defer to and enforce the decision of the highest authority of the ecclesiastical body to which the matter has been carried.
Since the Florida Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church had already adjudicated the dispute between the congregations and the statewide body, Florida law prohibits him from overturning that decision.
Sanctions denied
Since the lawsuit was filed nearly nine months ago, around one-half of the original plaintiffs dropped out of the litigation, including the First United Methodist Church of Starke, the Middleburg United Methodist Church and Pleasant Grove United Methodist Church in Starke. The Lawtey congregation and the Keystone United Methodist Church remained plaintiffs in the lawsuit at the time of Wright’s decision.
On Saturday, April 22, the Florida Conference voted to allow 55 congregations to separate from the denomination, including Grace at Fort Clarke in Gainesville, Middleburg, St. James in Palatka and First UMC in Lake City.
In addition to seeking the dismissal of the litigation, the defendants also asked Judge Wright to impose sanctions on the plaintiffs for filing what the defendants called a frivolous lawsuit.
“Plaintiffs and their counsel knew or should have known that Plaintiff’s claims lacked a basis in fact or law,” lawyers for the defendant wrote in a motion.
However, Wright wrote in his order that the plaintiffs’ actions were made in good faith, and he denied the motion for sanctions.
