WILMINGTON — The state appeals court has weighed in on a local church’s desire to keep its property amid a two-year lawsuit.
READ MORE: Lawsuit filed to keep Fifth Avenue Methodist Church open
The North Carolina Court of Appeals ruled Dec. 31 that the former Wilmington Fifth Avenue UMC can move forward with the majority of its claims in a lawsuit against the North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church. The Fifth Avenue church moved to disaffiliate from the UMC in 2022 and the lawsuit came a year later, after the UMC boarded up its church building.
The lawsuit concerns ownership of the church building at 409 S. Fifth Avenue. The UMC claims the church should stay under the UMC’s purview because the building’s donor wanted it so, plus the UMC oversees a trust that holds the building. Fifth Avenue argues the trust agreement should not have bound the building to the UMC, pointing to other churches that have left the denomination while retaining their property.
The suit was dismissed in New Hanover County civil court in September 2023, though the Court of Appeals’ decision last month negates that ruling — mostly.
The court ruled a trial court has the jurisdiction to hear most of Fifth Avenue’s claims, including the breach of contract, claims for quiet title, judicial modification of trust, fraud, and declaratory judgment. The court also ruled the Fifth Avenue church is entitled to preliminary injunctive relief to prevent changes to the property during litigation.
However, Fifth Avenue’s claim of promissory estoppel — essentially a claim that the conference promised Fifth Avenue the church building — was not reversed by the higher court.
“This ruling has significant implications for other churches facing similar property disputes,” Fifth Avenue’s attorney Greg Parsons wrote in a statement. “The court’s decision re-affirms that while civil courts cannot interfere with matters of religious doctrine, they can apply neutral legal principles to resolve property and contract disputes between local churches and their denominations.”
Fifth Avenue church sued after the UMC closed the church building in the midst of Fifth Avenue’s separation from the UMC. The conference claims the church was forever stipulated to be a Methodist church in line with a decree from the building’s donor, Miles Costin, in 1847. The church is being held in a trust; the conference claims this is for the benefit of the UMC.
Though hundreds of other churches have chosen to separate from the UMC over the last few years, the simultaneous seizure of their assets is unprecedented. Another Wilmington church, Pine Valley Methodist, was among many that left the UMC in December 2022 over LGBTQ+ beliefs, though it retained its property.
The Fifth Avenue congregation began the disaffiliation process in the fall of 2022 due to ideological differences. For years, the entire United Methodist Conference has been at an impasse over “ongoing, unresolved divisions regarding homosexuality,” though the Fifth Avenue congregation has not cited this as a specific reason for disaffiliation.
The delegates came to an agreement in early 2020 allowing churches a path for peaceful separation from the UMC. The legislation was to be certified at the 2020 UMC General Conference, but the gathering was postponed until 2024 due to the Covid-19 pandemic. That still did not stop more than 200 United Methodist churches in North Carolina from voting to disaffiliate in the following year, some of them joining the offshoot Global Methodist Church.
The North Carolina Conference stated at that time it equaled 32% of its congregations, roughly 22% of membership.
In February 2023, the church’s board of trustees voted 8-2 to begin the disaffiliation process, submitting all necessary documents, including a rundown of the church’s assets and values — over $2 million.
A month later, Tara Lain, district superintendent of the Southeastern Jurisdiction and defendant in the lawsuit, told the congregation that the church was being closed, focusing on the church’s declining membership; the next day, new locks were placed on the doors.
A trial date has not yet been announced for the lawsuit; it is not yet known whether this decision will be appealed to the North Carolina Supreme Court.
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