Mt. Bethel, North Georgia Conference enter settlement discussions
Mar. 15—MARIETTA — Lawyers for east Cobb's Mt. Bethel United Methodist Church and the Methodist denomination's regional body agreed to enter settlement discussions Tuesday morning.
At a hearing in Cobb Superior Court, lawyers announced that they had resolved several pending motions ahead of the hearing, before asking Judge Mary Staley Clark to facilitate closed-door negotiations.
"I think all the parties agree that the best chance to resolve this dispute is with your persuasion, rather than your orders," Robert Ingram, a lawyer representing Mt. Bethel, told the judge.
Tuesday's hearing, which saw a packed courtroom of Mt. Bethel congregants, was expected to be a back-and-forth between lawyers for Mt. Bethel and the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church. Mt. Bethel and the conference have been engaged in litigation for months over control of the church and its assets. The conference sued Mt. Bethel last September — Mt. Bethel responded with a countersuit in October.
While the conference has sought to take over control of the church and its assets, Mt. Bethel is seeking to leave the denomination with its assets intact.
The settlement negotiations could lead to a complete resolution of the lawsuit. Short of that, the parties may agree to some common ground before the case moves forward again. In the meantime, depositions, as well as another hearing to consider other motions, have been postponed.
"I'm impressed with the hard work that you've put into this and the ability you have to come to a consensus and agreement about the motions before the court this morning," Judge Staley Clark said at the hearing. "It takes insight, and sometimes stepping out of our normal litigation approach, to take a moment and reflect, not just on your respective position, but on the other side's position, and find commonality."
Mt. Bethel had filed motions to join together as defendants the trustees of the conference, the conference itself, Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson and District Superintendent Jessica Terrell. It also had filed third party complaints against the conference, Haupert-Johnson and Terrell, and a motion for default judgement. Lawyers for the conference's side had disputed those motions.
Under a joint consent order, the conference, Haupert-Johnson and Terrell withdrew their objection to be joined together as defendants with the trustees, while Mt. Bethel withdrew its motion for default judgement.
Haupert-Johnson, Terrell, and the trustees will now have 30 days to respond to Mt. Bethel's countersuit and discovery requests.
The order also stipulates that no action or vote to close Mt. Bethel will be taken at this year's annual meeting of North Georgia Conference churches in June. No clergy or lay delegates of Mt. Bethel will raise the issue at the meeting, either.
In a joint consent waiver entering settlement discussions, both parties acknowledged a "desire to avoid the costs and uncertainty of continued litigation and are amenable to such a settlement conference." The waiver calls for both parties to negotiate in good faith in an effort to resolve all litigation.
At the hearing's recess, both parties planned to convene in Judge Staley Clark's chambers. Each side will meet separately with the judge.
"I will listen carefully to what each side has to say, and then give guidance to the other side, not revealing what one side says, because that's not the function," Staley Clark said. "But more than anything, to kind of listen to both sides and ... say, "have you considered, would you consider, what do you think about, here's an idea," and it sort of allows us all to kind of craft things.
'More of a Christian way'
Tom Cauthorn, a lawyer representing the conference, said in an interview that he and his clients were amenable to a settlement in part because of the case's complicated nature. The Methodist Book of Discipline, nearly 1,000 pages long, "requires a lot of close reading, a lot of heavy lifting," he said.
"I always hold out hope that things can be settled," Cauthorn said. "I think the advantage that we have in this case is that the Mt. Bethel Church is represented by outstanding attorneys with vast experience. And one of the things you learn over a long period of time as a lawyer that does litigation, is that sometimes you don't win. And so sometimes compromise is best."
Ingram echoed that sentiment.
"I think both parties realized that if we continue to fight about everything, it will push the parties further apart and make a resolution more difficult," Ingram told the MDJ. "So to me, it made sense for the parties to try to resolve the motions, and to avoid getting into the depositions, first, and see if the judge can help the parties find common ground to resolve the dispute. Because you got good people on both sides of the dispute. And nobody wins if you fight about everything."
Staley Clark said she would try her best to mediate between the two sides. She acknowledged the importance of the case to the community, evidenced by the dozens of church members who had shown up — an overflow room was used to stream the proceedings for people who couldn't fit into the courtroom.
Among the people watching in the courtroom was Jody Ray, the de-facto leader and former senior pastor of Mt. Bethel. Ray, whose reassignment by Haupert-Johnson kicked off the dispute last year, relinquished his UMC credentials and was hired by Mt. Bethel as a lay preacher in order to remain at the church.
"This is a great gesture on the part of both parties that we could come together," Ray said in an interview. "It's more of a Christian way, right, that we would have some conversation and try to mediate, or at least come to some common ground in order to go from there. And so I'm happy about the possibility of that."
Background
Mt. Bethel, which dates back more than 175 years, is the largest church in the North Georgia Conference. According to conference data, in 2020 it had about 10,200 members, and the market value of its land, buildings, cash and other assets was about $36.7 million.
The conference is a regional body that governs nearly 800 Methodist churches in Georgia.
The feud between Mt. Bethel and the conference broke out last April when Haupert-Johnson reassigned Ray.
Methodist pastors are periodically reassigned by their bishops, a tradition of "itinerancy" that dates back centuries. Mt. Bethel lay leaders and congregants mounted a public campaign against the reassignment.
Mt. Bethel leaders accused Haupert-Johnson of reassigning Ray as punishment for his conservative beliefs, charges the bishop vehemently denied. At the time, Ray made headlines by addressing his children during a sermon, telling them to "remember this day, that your daddy didn't bow the knee nor kiss the ring of progressive theology."
Haupert-Johnson tapped Steven Usry, another conservative pastor, to replace Ray, but Mt. Bethel has sidelined him.
A previous attempt at mediation failed before the conference's trustees sued Mt. Bethel, alleging it had violated the UMC Book of Discipline.
Mt. Bethel's leadership has pointed to provisions in the Book of Discipline which allow local churches to retain their assets after disaffiliation, if they do so for reasons of conscience relating to LGBTQ issues.
The conference has sought an injunction from Staley Clark transferring Mt. Bethel's assets to the conference's trustees. Mt. Bethel meanwhile has sought an injunction that would allow its congregants to vote on whether or not to disaffiliate.
At the heart of the dispute is a split between conservative and liberal factions of the UMC, which is fracturing over issues such as LGBTQ marriage and ordination of LGBTQ priests.
Mt. Bethel falls on the conservative side and is affiliated with the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a group of conservative UMC churches planning a new denomination, the Global Methodist Church, set to launch in May.
The UMC was expected to vote on splitting the denomination at its 2020 general conference. That conference was supposed to take place later this year, but has now been postponed again to 2024.