Effingham, IL-(Effingham Radio)- The Illinois Great Rivers Conference has filed a lawsuit in Shelby County against a breakaway congregation that declared its independence and disaffiliation from The United Methodist Church without completing the steps of disaffiliation required by the denomination’s Book of Discipline.
The complaint, filed in Shelby County Circuit Court Jan. 25, alleges that the Cowden United Methodist Church, which organized on or about Jan. 1, 2024, as the Cowden Community Church of Faith and its trustees, have taken over the assets of the former United Methodist congregation, in violation of the denomination’s Trust Clause. The Conference is seeking its trust interest in the assets which include the church building, church parsonage and funds in all church bank accounts since it is “no longer be(ing) used for the benefit of future generations of United Methodists.”
Cowden UMC began a disaffiliation process in 2023, along with 79 other congregations within the Illinois Great Rivers Conference that would enable them to depart from the denomination with its property and financial assets in return for payment of costs associated with leaving. In October 2022, the trustees of the Illinois Great Rivers Conference developed the process by which churches could use Paragraph 2553, which was enacted by a special session of General Conference in St. Louis in February 2019. The 2553 process had a sunset date of Dec. 31, 2023.
Under paragraph 2553, each annual conference was empowered to establish the terms of disaffiliation.
The Illinois Great Rivers Conference’s provisions included:
- A 2/3 vote of the congregation to disaffiliate in an announced church conference
- Payment of the pro-rata share of the unfunded liability of pensions
- Payment of two years’ of apportionments – for 2023 and 2024
- A 10 percent surcharge for a release of the denomination’s Trust Clause, which has been part of The United Methodist Church and its predecessor denominations since 1792.
Cowden UMC’s total disaffiliation cost was calculated at $22,821.
The other 79 congregations, including the former Lakewood UMC, with whom the Cowden UMC shared a pastor, completed the disaffiliation process and were allowed to depart following actions of special corporate sessions of the annual conference on May 6 and Dec. 2, 2023.
The dispute arose with Cowden UMC in September 2023, when local church officials notified the conference that it would not be utilizing Paragraph 2553 to disaffiliate, but rather they would be “disaffiliating/renouncing any affiliation with the UMC, effective Dec. 31, due to irreconcilable differences in faith.” The church also stated they would not be meeting the financial requirements of disaffiliation since they “had paid their dues monthly, believing that they did not owe the UMC any further funds … and we cannot afford the high disaffiliation cost.”
The origins of the Cowden UMC date back to 1861 to 1865 when a traveling Methodist Episcopal pastor first convened a class of 12 local residents in or near what is now Cowden. A church building was erected after 1876. Cowden UMC thereafter on a continuous and ongoing basis used signage and literature stating it was a local church within the Methodist Episcopal Church and later The United Methodist Church. Cowden UMC used The United Methodist Church symbol of the cross and flame and otherwise recognized its affiliation with The United Methodist Church. Cowden UMC also utilized the words “United” and/or “Methodist” in connection with its name on its documents related to its ministry.
A portion of the real estate that forms a part of the church property was originally deeded to Cowden UMC (then known as the Methodist Episcopal Church at Cowden, Shelby County, Illinois) by a deed dated November 27, 1876, and recorded May 14, 1877. The deed included an express provision reciting the Trust Clause, stating that the property was “conveyed in trust that said premises shall be used, kept, maintained and disposed of as a place of divine worship for the use of the ministry and membership of the Methodist Episcopal Church in the United States of America subject to the discipline, usage and ministerial appointments of said Church as from time to time authorized and declared by the General Conference of said Church, and the Annual Conference in what bounds the said premises are situated.”
Cowden UMC acquired a second adjoining portion of the real estate that forms a part of the Church Property on September 18, 1919. The second tract includes parking and the parsonage for the church.
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