Nearly 200 United Methodist Churches in Georgia have filed a lawsuit asking a judge to force the denomination to allow them to leave in a splintering of the denomination over the issue of ordination of practicing gay clergy and same sex marriages.
And nearly a dozen of those churches filing suit are in the greater Athens area including St. James, Young Harris, New Prospect, Statham, Gordon’s Chapel, Colbert, Rays and Bishop.
Usually churches that want to leave the conference would follow steps in the denomination’s official disaffiliation plan. However, the North Georgia Conference in December temporarily halted requests to leave, citing “factually incorrect and defamatory” information circulating about the process for disaffiliation.
The lawsuit asks the court of immediately lift the pause on disaffiliation. Nearly two thousand UMC churches have left the denomination out of an estimated 30,000 congregations. The church has faced decades of turmoil mainly over the issue of homosexuality.
