By Jay Therrell
February 28, 2023
On Tuesday, February 21, 2023 at 1pm, attorneys representing the 70+ Florida United Methodist churches that have filed suit against the Florida Annual Conference appeared before Circuit Judge George Wright at the Bradford County Courthouse to argue multiple motions. Representing the churches were David C. Gibbs, III, Esq. of the National Center for Life and Liberty and Jeremy D. Bailie, Esq. of Weber, Crabb, & Wein, P.A. Representing the Florida Conference was Gregory A. Hearing, Esq. of Gray Robinson, P.A.
The lawsuit was filed in the late summer of 2022 focusing on claims that the Florida Conference allegedly violated multiple secular statutes regarding trust law and fiduciary requirements. The Florida Conference filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit along with several motions objecting to discovery requests from the plaintiff churches. The Florida Conference also filed a motion for sanctions claiming the lawsuit was frivolous and asking the court to penalize the churches and their attorneys for bringing it. The February 21 hearing pertained to all these motions.
Well over 200 people from the plaintiff churches traveled to the courthouse to attend the hearing. The courtroom sat about 75 and so many had to wait in the courtyard outside. It was a warm afternoon, but that didn’t stop the well over 100 people outside who spent the time praying and singing hymns during the hearing which went just over two hours.
Judge Wright was well prepared. He asked important and hard questions of both sides. Both sides were respectful and argued their positions well.
The attorneys for the Florida churches asked the court to take judicial notice of a recent jury trial decision handed down about ten days earlier (The Board of Trustees of the Florida Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church, Inc. vs. Bayshore United Methodist Church of Tampa, Inc. and Bayshore Christian School, Inc.). In that case the jury found in favor of Bayshore Christian School allowing the school to remain on their property in perpetuity. In the complaint the Florida Conference filed, they alleged claims almost identical to the ones being alleged by the churches in the current case. In other words, the Florida Conference was arguing to the court that the plaintiff churches were legally barred from bringing almost identical claims that the Conference itself had brought several years earlier. It was a point not lost on the court.
At the end of over two hours, the judge shared that he would reserve judgment on all of the motions pending before the court and render his decision at a later date. He acknowledged the unique time constraints and nature of the case and said he would do his best to make a decision quickly. “Quickly” is a relative term, and so we don’t know how long it will take to receive a decision.
For now, the case is in God’s hands. Please be in prayer for Judge Wright that God would give him the wisdom to decide the case correctly and fairly and that in the end God would be glorified.
The Rev. Jay Therrell is the president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association and an ordained elder in the Global Methodist Church.