Following an abrupt halt and an ensuing lawsuit, 180-plus North Georgia churches can proceed with the process of splitting from the United Methodist Church.
Cobb County Superior Court Judge Steven Schuster on Tuesday lifted the "pause" the North Georgia Conference of the denomination implemented in late 2022 — a response to what it said was rampant disinformation that undermined the integrity of the disaffiliation process.
Critics said the conference was making a desperate effort to hold together when it became clear that, amid a historic schism, hundreds of its member churches might join the wave of theologically conservative congregations leaving the large Christian denomination.
The court decision allows the North Georgia churches to promptly hold official congregational votes on whether to disaffiliate, though details such as when the conference would gather to ratify disaffiliations still need to be worked out, according to a Tuesday email from the Wesleyan Covenant Association of North Georgia, which had advocated for disaffiliating churches.
More than 200 people filled the courtroom and overflow rooms, said the email, which heralded the day as a significant step forward.
"Our one conviction through this whole process has been that churches deserve to make decisions based on agreed-upon processes," the email said. "We are grateful that the court agrees this to be our legal right. Much more, we trust this will be the first step toward ending the lamentable contention in our conference and the beginning of reconciliation and peace."
The North Georgia Conference is considering an appeal, spokeswoman Sybil Davidson said in an email Wednesday.
The details of the order are yet to come out, but once they are received, conference leadership will communicate plans and timelines, Davidson said.
"Leaders of the conference remain committed to handling this matter in a fair, transparent, uniform and good faith manner," she said.
(READ MORE: In East Tennessee, United Methodist split is now official)
Following years of dispute over LGBTQ policies, which departing theologically conservative United Methodists often characterize as flash points for deeper divisions, the denomination established a process to govern how churches could leave with their property.
Regional conferences like North Georgia have had considerable discretion as to how they would administer that process — and lawsuits have flown when churches seeking to leave felt they faced undue burdens.
Still, in halting the process altogether, many believed the North Georgia Conference, which comprises roughly 700 churches, went further than any other. Critics saw the move as a betrayal of an agreed-upon process and saw in its rationale the implication that North Georgia Conference leadership felt members lacked the ability to discern between different perspectives.
"Are they not intelligent enough to figure that out?" asked North Georgia Wesleyan Covenant Association organizer Dan Parr in an interview with the Chattanooga Times Free Press earlier this year. "Or does the conference have to play Big Brother and tell them what to think?"
In a March lawsuit, Parr helped represent 180-plus North Georgia churches, which collectively argued the conference's disaffiliation halt threatened to destroy their congregations and deprive them of their property rights.
The move to stop disaffiliation emerged after it became clear hundreds of conference churches intended to leave, the suit said. As many congregations prepared to hold official votes on disaffiliation, the conference conspired to "run out the clock" on the process, the suit said, noting the rule governing the process sunsets at the end of 2023.
The complaint, which named the past and current North Georgia Conference bishops as well as its trustees among the defendants, asked the court to swiftly intervene.
The North Georgia Conference argued the dispute was an internal church affair and that the secular court lacked jurisdiction to hear the suits.
A Columbia County Superior Court judge earlier this month rejected similar arguments in ruling in favor of two Augusta United Methodist churches that sued to leave the denomination. The congregations have since voted overwhelmingly to disaffiliate, according to the Wesleyan Covenant Association email.
Contact Andrew Schwartz at aschwartz@timesfreepress.com or 423-757-6431.