The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church has been sued by over 180 congregations for preventing them to disaffiliate amidst denominational rift concerning homosexuality. A lawsuit has been filed by 186 churches against the UMC North Georgia Conference in Cobb County’s Superior Court. The action comes after the conference’s pronouncement last December to disallow any more congregations to leave in relation to the schism over homosexuality. The conservative advocacy group, Wesleyan Covenant Association of North Georgia, explained in a statement that the decision to file the lawsuit comes “with a heavy heart.”
The Christian Post reports:
More than 180 congregations in Georgia have filed a lawsuit after their regional body of the United Methodist Church refused to allow them to disaffiliate amid a denominational schism over homosexuality.
Last week, 186 churches filed a lawsuit against the UMC North Georgia Conference in Superior Court in Cobb County over the conference’s decision last December to prohibit any more congregations from leaving amid a denominational schism over homosexuality.
The Wesleyan Covenant Association of North Georgia, an unofficial conservative advocacy group that helped conservative churches form the Global Methodist Church breakaway denomination, released a statement explaining that the decision to sue comes “with a heavy heart.”
The decision to “pause” the disaffiliation process was announced by the conference last December with the statement that local churches were misled regarding the disaffiliation process.
The North Georgia Conference announced in December that it was putting a “pause” on the disaffiliation process, claiming that “any local churches have been misled about the disaffiliation process and have been presented with information about the process.”
“We have significant concerns about this misinformation and are well aware that it has the potential to do irreparable harm,” stated the conference at the time. “We do not have confidence in the validity of upcoming church conference disaffiliation votes.”
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