Mt. Bethel Church sued by North Georgia UMC after mediation fails

Mt. Bethel Church

The North Georgia Conference the United Methodist Church is suing Mt. Bethel Church in East Cobb after attempts at mediation between the two feuding parties failed.

The lawsuit was filed in Cobb Superior Court on Wednesday by the trustees of the North Georgia Conference, which includes 800 churches and more than 340,000 members, and seeks Mt. Bethel properties and assets.

The Conference issued a brief announcement:

While the Conference and its representatives have engaged in negotiations with local church officials and have made good faith efforts to resolve the issues without litigation, the current situation has not changed and it is untenable. The Conference Board of Trustees will continue to take all necessary and appropriate actions to ensure compliance with the tradition and the Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church.

The legal action (you can read the lawsuit here) seeks declaratory judgment against Mt. Bethel, which announced its intent to disaffiliate from the UMC this spring, after refusing to accept the reassignment of its senior pastor, Rev. Dr. Jody Ray.

Mt. Bethel leadership also refused to accept the reassignment of Rev. Dr. Steven Usry, declining to provide him office space and to pay him a full salary.

In addition, the church retained Ray as its CEO and top lay pastor, roles the Conference said violate the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing policies.

The Conference further ruled that Mt. Bethel was not a church in good standing, and ordered it to turn over its properties and other physical assets.

The cover letter to the lawsuit is dated July 12, the start of a 10-day window given to Mt. Bethel to turn over church assets.

That’s also when the Conference announced it was installing the trustees to manage Mt. Bethel operations.

Two weeks later, the Conference and UMC announced mediation and said neither would be commenting further.

In the legal filing, the Conference said that “in order to make provision for the spiritual guidance and pastoral care of many of the Respondent’s [Mt. Bethel] former members, it is essential that this Court declare that all the assets are the property of the Petitioner.”

The lawsuit also seeks a permanent injunction “restraining and enjoining Respondent from exercising or claiming to exercise any right, record title, ownership, possession, enjoyment, use, control to and of the assets.”

Ray and Mt. Bethel leadership remain in charge of worship and other activities on both of the church’s campuses. Usry has not assumed his duties, saying he would not do so during the dispute, and he has been highly critical of Mt. Bethel.

East Cobb News has left a message with Mt. Bethel seeking comment.

UPDATED, THURSDAY, SEPT. 9, 7:15 P.M.

Here’s a statement Mt. Bethel has just released:

“We are deeply saddened that we were not able to come to a mediated solution with Bishop Sue Haupert-Jonhson and the Trustees of the North Georgia Conference.

“Mt. Bethel is a healthy, vibrant church with a 180-year history. Despite the ongoing pandemic, worship continues, ministry thrives, the school buildings and the playing fields are full, and attendance at our weekly services remain among the highest in the conference. 

“We have been watching and praying for the final passage of the Protocol for Reconciliation and Grace through Separation when a special General Conference can finally take place (in fact, had the Protocol been passed in 2020 as originally envisioned prior to the pandemic, Mt. Bethel would have already parted ways with an increasingly progressive post-separation UM Church). Bishop Haupert-Johnson sees a different future, and she is entitled to her beliefs. Our beloved church is now simply asking for its voice to be heard; let us vote on disaffiliation. Give our members a chance to speak to the heart of our faith and stake a claim for the future of Mt. Bethel Church.”

ORIGINAL REPORT:

Mt. Bethel, with around 10,000 members, is the largest congregation in the North Georgia Conference.

The East Cobb church also is at the forefront of theological disputes within the UMC, the second-largest Protestant denomination in the U.S., that have led to a separation process delayed to 2022.

If that process—called Protocol for Reconciliation through Grace and Separation—is approved by UMC delegates, conservative congregations would be allowed to undertake a disaffiliation process, most likely to an entity called the Global Methodist Church.

That’s a denomination that’s been planned by the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a group of conservative churches that includes Mt. Bethel, and that was formed in recent years.

Among the points of contention within the UMC have been lesbian and gay clergy and performing same-sex marriages, both of which the denomination currently prohibits.

Ray, who’s been at Mt. Bethel for five years, was reassigned to a non-ministry role with the North Georgia Conference in April.

He said neither he nor Mt. Bethel were properly consulted about the move, as they claim the UMC Book of Discipline requires.

Ray turned in his UMC ministerial credentials immediately, and in his first sermon at Mt. Bethel after that, looked at his children and said “I want you also to remember this day, that your Daddy didn’t bow the knee, or kiss the ring, of progressive theology. . . . which is no theology.”

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Mt. Bethel to leave United Methodist Church; pastor staying on

Mt. Bethel UMC, Dr. Jody Ray
Dr. Jody Ray has been senior pastor at Mt. Bethel UMC since 2016.

Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church of East Cobb—the largest congregation in the North Georgia Conference—will be leaving the denomination.

Rustin Parsons, a lay leader of the 8,000-member church, said during a news conference Monday morning that Mt. Bethel was doing so over the North Georgia Conference’s decision to reassign senior pastor Dr. Jody Ray.

“We have begun the process to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church,” Parsons said in reading a statement in the church sanctuary.

“It’s time for us to part ways with the denomination.”

Ray also said at the news conference (you can watch it and read statements here) that he is surrendering his credentials as an ordained minister in the UMC. He will continue serving Mt. Bethel as CEO and lead minister.

The announcements come a week after Mt. Bethel leadership said the church “is not in a position to receive a new senior minister at this time.”

Ray had been reassigned out of the ministry to a role with the North Georgia Conference staff in Atlanta involving racial reconciliation. The North Georgia Conference has 800 churches and more than 340,000 members, and every spring routinely reassigns clergy.

Steven Usry, the senior pastor at Sugarloaf UMC in Duluth, was appointed to succeed Ray at Mt. Bethel, starting in July. Usry was not mentioned at the Mt. Bethel news conference on Monday.

Parsons said that he was “dismayed” by the “abrupt” decision of Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson of the North Georgia Conference to remove Ray from Mt. Bethel.

“Despite our repeated requests to reverse course, she has refused,” he said, “or provide a reason or rationale for her capricious action.

“We have no intention of accepting another pastor.”

Ray, who came to Mt. Bethel in 2016, said he was told by Haupert-Johnson on April 5 of the reassignment, and said that her “hasty and ill-conceived action” has “undermined her credibility with the people of Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church and jeopardized the health and vitality of this great congregation that is a beacon of hope and light in this community and beyond.”

More than 4,000 people signed a petition started last week by church leaders to oppose Ray’s reassignment.

He said he was not given a reason for his reassignment. In the United Methodist Church, ordained ministers are subject to what’s called the “itinerant ministry,” in which they are reassigned at the behest of the denomination.

“Unfortunately, my options were to accept the move, take a leave of absence, or surrender my credentials,” Ray said. “That’s not consultation, it is merely notification, and it violates both the spirit and letter of the covenants that bind us together.”

Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson, North Georgia Conference UMC
Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson

In a statement issued by the North Georgia Conference, Haupert-Johnson said that “while it is painful for any church or pastor to leave the denomination, there are protocols in place to allow clergy and congregations to depart. These protocols include having at least two-thirds of the congregation vote for disaffiliation and the regional governing body approving the measure.”

In a pastoral letter she issued on Monday, Haupert-Johnson said Ray hung up on the North Georgia Conference superintendent who called him about the reassignment, saying he was interested only in staying at Mt. Bethel.

With more than 12 million members, the UMC is the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States, behind the Southern Baptist Convention.

Before the COVID pandemic, the United Methodist Church nationwide was in turmoil over a number of theological issues, including the ordination of gay and lesbian clergy.

The denomination was to have met in 2020 to begin a “Protocol for Reconciliation through Grace and Separation.” That process has been pushed back to 2022.

During his sermon last week, Ray addressed his children by saying that “your Daddy didn’t bow the knee, or kiss the ring, of progressive theology. . . . which is no theology.”

In her pastoral letter, Haupert-Johnson said Ray’s sermon “cast this as a ‘hostile takeover’ by an evil, ungodly woman bishop and denigrating The United Methodist Church.

“This reckless behavior has caused a great deal of pain to the congregation and threatens its covenant with The United Methodist Church.”

She further said that Mt. Bethel leaders:

“Refused to have any meaningful conversation, and instead threatened that $3-4 million would walk out of the church if they were not allowed to deviate from the appointive process and keep their pastor. When asked to further the consultation by submitting written concerns to the Cabinet, they gave no missional reasons against the appointment. The leaders wrote that they would withhold compensation, benefits and any reimbursement for a new pastor. They warned that upon his arrival the church, its ministries, and its school will ‘most certainly be unstable and likely hostile.’ “

Some UMC churches have made similar disaffiliation decisions as Mt. Bethel, including seven congregations in South Georgia last August.

In recent weeks Mt. Bethel, which is more than 175 years old, has changed some of its branding, calling itself “Mt. Bethel Church” on its website and social media channels.

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