GrayRobinson Shareholder Greg Hearing Successfully Represents the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to Dismiss Disaffiliation Lawsuit

April 18, 2023

GrayRobinson Shareholder Greg Hearing successfully represented the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the Circuit Court of the Eighth Judicial Circuit for Bradford County, Fla., in a case to dismiss a lawsuit filed by 106 United Methodist Churches looking to disaffiliate from the Conference. Some churches that wish to disaffiliate from the Conference are attempting to do it through processes other than the one established for this in The Book of Discipline, the United Methodist governing document. The churches seeking to depart oppose being more inclusive toward LGBTQ members. Greg successfully argued on behalf of the UMC that the First Amendment to the Constitution strictly prohibits secular courts from stepping into doctrinal issues within church governance, resulting in the court’s dismissal of the disaffiliation lawsuit. This critical ruling ultimately supports the Florida Conference of the UMC and reaffirms the Constitutional principle that secular courts do not have a role in settling matters of church doctrine. Read – GrayRobinson Shareholder Greg Hearing Successfully Represents the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church to Dismiss Disaffiliation Lawsuit.