KALAMAZOO, Mich. (AP) - Members of Lane Boulevard Church say they've been pushed out of their longtime home by the United Methodist Church, which says the denomination and not the congregation owns the building.
Lane Boulevard Church members voted this year to removed "Methodist" from their name.
On Nov. 27, Kalamazoo County Circuit Judge J. Richardson Johnson issued a preliminary injunction giving the Western Michigan Conference of the United Methodist Church access to the early 20th century building.
The 120-member Lane Boulevard congregation now holds Sunday services at the Hungarian Church of Kalamazoo.
"I know that it is hard for them," said the Rev. Zawdie Abiade, the Kalamazoo-area district superintendent for the denomination. But, he added, "the property legally belongs to the United Methodist Church."
The Methodists' Western Michigan Conference "is part of a hierarchical church organization, and the plaintiff local church is under its jurisdiction and control," Methodist lawyer Thomas Shearer wrote in a legal brief for the case.
American religious groups vary widely in how much authority the denomination exerts over individual congregations, from full control to loose, voluntary affiliation.
Founded as an independent congregation, Lane Boulevard Church later joined the Evangelical United Brethren Church. In 1968, that denomination merged with the United Methodist Church.
Lane Boulevard members narrowly voted to participate in the merger.
"We never agreed to their discipline or to their contention that they owned the church," longtime member Richard Spigelmyer told the Kalamazoo Gazette for a story Sunday. "We began as a German congregation, and we've always been very independent."
Over time, Lane Boulevard Church has had disputes with the United Methodist Church over management issues and the denomination's more liberal positions on the ordination of women, acceptance of gay people and other issues.
"The Methodist hierarchy is pretty left," said member and lawyer Robert Clark. "We have our way and they have their way and our way isn't their way."
What triggered the congregation's decision to quit the Methodist Church was word earlier this year that the denomination planned to remove the Rev. James Dyke, a former Catholic priest, as pastor.
Church members say the judge's ruling did not let the United Methodist Church change the locks, as it has done. Methodist officials say they acted within the terms of the ruling.
A trial in the dispute over control of the building is expected next year.
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