The United Methodist Church’s top court, Judicial Council, struck down the Mississippi Conference’s process to allow churches to leave the denomination with property.
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In Decision 1518, the Judicial Council reiterates its conclusion in two earlier rulings that church closures cannot be used as a back door for church exits now that the denomination’s temporary disaffiliation policy no longer exists.
The process adopted by the Mississippi Conference’s board of trustees, the church court said, violates the denomination’s church-closure provision — Paragraph 2549 in the Book of Discipline.
“In addition, the ‘Mississippi Process’ was enacted without disciplinary authority,” the decision said. “Therefore, it is null and void and has no force or effect.”
The Judicial Council held a special online session June 2 to consider questions from the Southeastern Jurisdiction’s bishops submitted too late to be part of the church court’s spring docket.
The church court publicly released the decision the next day — ahead of when the Mississippi Annual Conference met in June.
At issue in this case is the process that the Mississippi Conference’s trustees first adopted on October 20, 2022, and extended in 2024 and 2025.
Under that process, the trustees entered into agreements with churches that allowed them to withdraw under terms similar to the Discipline’s disaffiliation policy, Paragraph 2553, after it expired.
While Paragraph 2553 was in force, about a quarter of U.S. churches used the policy to leave The United Methodist Church, including 386 in Mississippi. The Judicial Council also issued multiple rulings related to the provision during those years.
However, after the pandemic led to the postponement of the regularly scheduled 2020 General Conference beyond the policy’s expiration, the Mississippi Conference trustees turned to another provision to extend it.
Paragraph 2549, a church-closure provision, mainly covers how to work with the members and property of congregations that are no longer sustainable. Under the Mississippi Process, the conference allows the trustees to enter into a contract with a thriving church “to sell the same property back to a new church formed by the members of your church.”
The Judicial Council ruled that the Mississippi Process violated both Paragraph 2549’s overall intent and its rules governing the transfer of property.
With Paragraph 2553 no longer in effect, the Judicial Council has consistently ruled that the trust clause is in full force.
In Decision 1517, released April 29, the Judicial Council ruled again that Paragraph 2549 “cannot be construed or used as legislation permitting the ‘gracious exit’ of local churches because it applies to church closure and the sale of property, not disaffiliation.”
But even after the release of Decision 1512, the Mississippi Conference voted for the closure of 12 churches under the Mississippi Process.
The Rev. Luan-Vu “Lui” Tran issued a dissent arguing that the Judicial Council did not have jurisdiction to take up this case. Unless the Southeastern Jurisdiction’s College of Bishops “is directly and specifically affected by the impugned actions, the request is outside the scope of the jurisdictional grant” of the Discipline, Tran wrote. While the Southeastern Jurisdiction’s bishops raised a valid concern, he said, the proper body to request the Judicial Council’s review would be the full Council of Bishops.
However, the Judicial Council majority argued that the church court does have the authority to take the case because the bishops’ request relates to the work of the Southeastern Jurisdiction.
excerpt from a story by Heather Hahn, assistant news editor, UM News
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