Mt. Bethel lawsuit settlement Archives

A consent decree between Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church and the denomination’s North Georgia Conference has been filed in Cobb Superior Court, and reveals more details beyond last week’s general announcement.

Mt. Bethel UMC, Dr. Jody Ray — *Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, Mt. Bethel UMC*

We’re reading through the full 125-page settlement (you can read it here), but the main terms are what was divulged last week—Mt. Bethel gets to keep its property and most assets and has 120 days from Monday, when the agreement was signed, to pay $13.1 million to the North Georgia Conference.

Mt. Bethel also will return certain intellectual property, including items with UMC insignia, and will officially remain part of the denomination until its obligations under the settlement are met.

After that, Mt. Bethel’s use of its property on its main campus on Lower Roswell Road will come with some restrictions.

That includes not using any of the parcels comprising the main church buildings and the Mt. Bethel Christian Academy as a headquarters or office for any religious denomination for seven and a half years.

Mt. Bethel has been an organizing member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, which recently launched the Global Methodist Church, an international consortium of conservative congregations.

But Mt. Bethel officials say that once the congregation has left the UMC, it will become an independent church.

Mt. Bethel also is prevented from selling the Lower Roswell Road properties for seven and a half years without giving the UMC and the North Georgia Conference the right of first refusal to purchase them.

Once Mt. Bethel completes the real estate closing, the organization will become Mt. Bethel Church Inc. with a trade name of Mt. Bethel.

The settlement stipulates that other properties near the main campus—three homes on Fairfield Drive, an older adult center, a day care center and the Mt. Bethel church cemetery on Johnson Ferry Road—can be sold at any time.

However, those facilities also may not be used to house a denominational office.

Mt. Bethel’s North campus on Post Oak Tritt Road is not included in the settlement because church leadership last year placed the facility under the ownership of Mt. Bethel Christian Academy.

The North Georgia Conference objected to that action, since there wasn’t a vote taken by the congregation, which was required by the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents.

The settlement terms also include a provision that information collected through discovery will not be shared or discussed by any of the parties.

A preamble to the settlement notes that “both sides plan to look forward and honor the mission and ministry of each other as Christians. Accordingly, the Parties shall encourage their members to focus on the mission of Jesus Christ and not the past actions and alleged transgressions of each another, as referenced in the civil action now being mutually resolved.”

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

In a letter to Mt. Bethel members on Monday, pastor Rev. Dr. Jody Ray, explained the terms, and concluded by saying that “we reiterate our great hope in the future of Mt. Bethel’s mission and ministry to share the Gospel of Jesus Christ, which we pray each and every one of you will be a part of.”

The Friends of Mt. Bethel, a group of church members opposed to the church’s actions against the North Georgia Conference, said that “while the settlement agreement may not be what we had hoped for, it does not change who we are. We are the beloved sons and daughters of the King. We will continue to pray for you as you prayerfully consider your steps forward. God has a place for all of us.”

They will be meeting next week with Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson of the North Georgia Conference at another Methodist church in East Cobb.

It was her reassignment of Ray to a non-ministerial post at the North Georgia Conference in May 2021 that set off a heated dispute lasting more than a year.

Mt. Bethel was among the conservative UMC congregations anticipating that the denomination would allow gay and lesbian clergy and same-sex marriages, which are currently forbidden.

After Ray turned in his UMC ministerial credentials, he delivered a sermon in which he said he would not “bow the knee, or kiss the ring, of progressive theology. . . . which is no theology.”

Mt. Bethel kept him as CEO and lay pastor, positions the North Georgia Conference said weren’t allowed under the Book of Discipline.

After Mt. Bethel refused to acknowledge his appointed successor, Rev. Dr. Stephen Usry, the Conference announced it would seize the church’s assets.

After mediation failed last summer, the Conference sued Mt. Bethel in September 2021, and Mt. Bethel filed a countersuit.

The United Methodist Church had scheduled a vote on protocols for separation in 2020, but its conferences have been delayed until 2024.

There won’t be a vote for Mt. Bethel to disaffiliate, as has happened with some churches in the North Georgia Conference recently.

Mt. Bethel’s attorneys said they wanted to have a vote of its membership, but the North Georgia Conference did not schedule one.