Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church has finalized a legal settlement with the denomination’s North Georgia Conference that will allow the congregation to keep its property and assets at its two East Cobb campuses.
In return, Mt. Bethel will pay the Conference $13.1 million as it begins to leave the denomination following more than a year of highly charged rhetoric and legal action.
Robert Ingram, the lead attorney for Mt. Bethel, told East Cobb News on Thursday that the settlement has been agreed to by both parties, and awaits formal signatures.
He said once those signatures have been collected, he expects to file a motion in Cobb Superior Court early next week to finalize the agreement, and that it will take up to 120 days to become official.
Also next week, Ingram said, Mt. Bethel will be known only as Mt. Bethel Church, another significant step toward separating itself from the UMC, the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.
Ingram said Mt. Bethel will have up to 120 days to submit the payment to the North Georgia Conference, and will be conducting a fundraising drive.
“They’re going to be out of the UMC,” Ingram said of Mt. Bethel, which has been seeking in its lawsuit a vote to disaffiliate.
Mt. Bethel was sending out word to its members and the public Thursday about the agreement, which was forged after several weeks of discussions facilitated by Cobb Superior Court Senior Judge Mary Staley.
The settlement announcement comes as the North Georgia Conference is holding its annual meeting in Athens, with more than 70 congregations requesting disaffiliation.
Mt. Bethel is not among them, due to the litigation. A tentative agreement was announced in early May, but no terms were disclosed.
Last September, the Conference sued Mt. Bethel after several months of contentious actions and public statements over the denomination’s reassignment of Mt. Bethel senior pastor Rev. Dr. Jody Ray.
When Ray refused, Mt. Bethel announced its intention to disaffiliate from the UMC. Mt. Bethel and Ray claimed they weren’t properly consulted by the North Georgia Conference, which each spring makes clergy assignments based on the UMC’s “itinerant ministry” tradition.
Mt. Bethel’s conservative leadership also has been at odds with the UMC over theological disputes that include the ordination of gay clergy and performing same-sex marriages.
Currently, the UMC’s Book of Discipline governing documents forbid both, but the denomination is expected to change its policies.
Mt. Bethel has been a founding member of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a consortium of conservative Methodist churches that have been planning to create a new denomination called the Global Methodist Church.
After mediation failed last summer, the North Georgia Conference filed suit in Cobb Superior Court attempting to seize Mt. Bethel assets and property valued at $35 million.
The denomination also claimed that Mt. Bethel was not a church in good standing, including its refusal to accept Rev. Dr. Steven Usry, the Conference’s appointed successor to Ray, and was not eligible for disaffiliation.
The national UMC has been preparing for a split with more conservative congregations for several years. But international conferences to consider its Protocol for Separation and Reconciliation have been postponed due to COVID-19 measures.
When a conference scheduled for September was pushed back to 2024, the Global Methodist Church announced it was accelerating its launch to May.
On Wednesday, Wesleyan Covenant Association leader Keith Boyette—also a member of Mt. Bethel’s legal team—became the GMC’s senior executive and administrative officer, overseeing the denomination’s transition over the next 12-18 months.
Ingram told East Cobb News that because of the settlement, there won’t be a disaffiliation vote. He said Mt. Bethel wanted that to happen, especially because it would have cost “millions and million of dollars less” than what’s been settled.
“We wanted the court to allow a vote just on disaffiliation,” he said, explaining that only the North Georgia Conference superintendent could call for a such a vote.
“Despite our pleas, they never did that,” Ingram said.
He said Mt. Bethel has not decided whether or not to pursue membership in the Global Methodist Conference.
Mt. Bethel, with nearly 10,000 members, is the largest congregation in the North Georgia Conference, which oversees nearly 900 churches.
Before the lawsuits, North Georgia Conference records indicated that Mt. Bethel was more than $2 million behind in making annual “apportionment” payments dating back a couple of decades.
A more recent update shows that Mt. Bethel paid only $24,037 of the $627,889 of assigned apportionments in 2021, the lowest dollar figure and percentage (3.8 percent) in records dating back to the early 1990s.
None of the churches seeking disaffiliation this week are in Cobb, and many are splitting over similar differences in theology as Mt. Bethel. Late Thursday, North Georgia Conference delegates voted to accept the disaffiliation requests, including Sardis UMC in Buckhead and Ebenezer UMC in Roswell.
A group of Mt. Bethel members opposed to the church’s handling of the controversy sent out a message Wednesday under the headline “What Now?” The group has been meeting with Usry, who gave the sermon at a special Easter service for them at Collins Memorial UMC in Atlanta.
“Many of us have big decisions to make, and those decisions should be made with a heart of discernment,” said the message of the Friends of Mt. Bethel group. “Under the direction of Pastor Steven we are working to help members of our faith family determine how to move forward, and to take care of each other during this time.”
As for Usry, the Friends of Mt. Bethel said that technically, he is assigned to Mt. Bethel through June 30, 2023. It’s not clear how the settlement will affect his status.
“He will be available to serve any church members, or former church members, during this transition,” the Friends of Mt. Bethel message stated. “He will be working with Friends of Mt. Bethel UMC members to try to discern how we can best support our community during this time.”
Related stories:
- Mt. Bethel Church, UMC agree to settlement terms
- Mt. Bethel Church, UMC ask Cobb judge to settle lawsuits
- Mt. Bethel requests UMC documents to former pastor
- Mt. Bethel UMC member subpoenaed as lawsuits proceed
- Mt. Bethel allowed to retain Methodist leader in lawsuit
- Mt. Bethel asks for disaffiliation vote in lawsuit counterclaim
- ‘Friends of Mt. Bethel’ growing more vocal against church leaders
- Mt. Bethel pastor likens church’s saga to Civil Rights movement
- Mt. Bethel sued by UMC denomination
- Mt. Bethel, North Georgia UMC enter mediation
- At prayer service, Mt. Bethel urged to prepare for ‘spiritual warfare’
- Mt. Bethel blasts ‘false declarations’ to seize assets
- North Georgia UMC to seize assets, take over management of Mt. Bethel
- Appointed Mt. Bethel pastor “disappointed” with church leaders
- Mt. Bethel church members fears “that we’re being torn apart”
- Mt. Bethel Church files grievance against Methodist leaders
- Mt. Bethel announces intent to leave United Methodist Church
- Mt. Bethel UMC opposes reassignment of senior pastor
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