wfn.org | State supreme court rules in United Methodist property case

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

June 5, 2001 News media contact: Thomas S. McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville,
Tenn.  10-71B{258}

By United Methodist News Service

The Wisconsin State Supreme Court has upheld the trust relationship that
allows a United Methodist annual (regional) conference to preserve local
church property that is no longer being used for United Methodist purposes.

The court's decision, announced May 29, was based on a state statute that
says, "Whenever any local Methodist church or society shall become defunct
or be dissolved, the rights, privileges and title to the property thereof,
both real and personal, shall vest in the annual conference and be
administered according to the rules and discipline of said church."

The statute is consistent with the historic trust clause instituted by
Methodism's founder, John Wesley, in England and transported to American
Methodism in the 1700s. Courts have repeatedly upheld the trust clause
during the church's 200-plus history in the United States.

The Wisconsin case involved the Elo United Methodist Church in Pickett,
Wis., founded in the 1840s.  

In 1997, the 119-member Elo congregation voted almost unanimously to break
away from the United Methodist denomination over doctrinal issues.
Congregational leaders disavowed the United Methodist Church, took down the
United Methodist signs, tried to evict the United Methodist pastor and
converted the church building and parsonage for use by the independent "Elo
Evangelical Church."  

Leaders in the Wisconsin Conference tried for two years to resolve the
dispute amicably, according to attorney Jon Furlow. "The conference filed
the lawsuit very reluctantly, but had no choice because it was necessary to
preserve the church property for United Methodists to use for worship in the
Pickett area."

Furlow said he was grateful that the court had resolved the issue. "It is
important that the United Methodist Church be able to make sure that its
local churches continue to be used for United Methodist worship."

Two dissenting votes were cast in the decision by the seven-member court.
"The (Elo) trustees are not entitled to retain the property for whatever
purposes they see fit without regard to the interests of the conference and
the United Methodist Church," the court ruled.  

Because of the trust clause under which the Elo property is held for the
benefit of the United Methodist Church, "it is beyond the powers of the Elo
trustees to disassociate the property from the United Methodist Church," the
court said.

Pointing to an earlier case in the New York Annual Conference, the justices
note that "although the members of a local church may secede from a
hierarchical system, they cannot secede and take the church property with
them."

The justices concluded that "as a consequence of the Elo congregation's
unequivocal withdrawal from the United Methodist Church and the conference,
the Elo church was rendered a defunct or dissolved local Methodist church"
within the meaning of the state statute.  

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United Methodist News Service
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