Judge rejects UMC’s claim to own breakaway megachurch
Quick Summary
- Judge rules United Methodist Church does not own an Alabama megachurch's property.
- Court finds Harvest Church is the sole owner, rejecting UMC's claims based on a trust clause.
- Ruling follows a legal dispute initiated in November 2022 before Harvest Church voted to leave UMC.
An Alabama judge has ruled that the United Methodist Church does not own and has no legal claim to the property of Harvest Church, a megachurch in Dothan that broke away from the denomination over its stance on same-sex marriage.
Houston County Circuit Judge Christopher K. Richardson issued the ruling last week, finding that Harvest Church is the sole owner of its property and that neither the denomination nor any of its affiliated bodies holds any right or interest in the church’s real or personal assets, AL.com reported.
The Alabama-West Florida Conference, the UMC regional body, had argued in court that it owned Harvest Church’s property based on a “trust clause” in the denomination’s Book of Discipline, a roughly 900-page governing document.
The trust clause provision holds that local church property is held in trust for the denomination.
Richardson rejected that argument, finding that the deeds to Harvest Church’s property never included any such trust clause. No one at Harvest had ever agreed to be bound by the Book of Discipline, and the church had operated with minimal contact with the denomination, the judge found.
In 1999, the Alabama-West Florida Conference gave Harvest Church trustees $273,377 to purchase land on which the church built its campus. Richardson ruled the money was a gift with no strings attached, noting that communications at the time described it as such and that no contrary evidence was presented.
Richardson also rejected several counterclaims brought by the denomination.
He ruled there was no breach of contract, no breach of what the denomination called a “connectional covenant and trust,” and no liability tied to the original land gift. He further rejected claims of unjust enrichment, noting that while the denomination had provided Harvest with a total of $442,050.19 in funding, Harvest had paid back more than $2.4 million to the denomination through apportionments, the required financial contributions local churches make to the UMC.
Richardson dismissed a claim for breach of fiduciary duty, finding the denomination failed to prove either a fiduciary relationship or a breach, and rejected a claim for reimbursement of 2025 healthcare premiums for Harvest Lead Pastor Ralph Sigler, who helped found the congregation.
The ruling caps a legal dispute that began in November 2022, when Harvest filed suit against the Alabama-West Florida Conference, concerned that the congregation would lose control of its campus if it sought to leave the denomination.
In January 2023, 98% of Harvest members voted to leave the UMC. The departure was part of a wider fracture in the denomination over its stance on same-sex marriage and the ordination of noncelibate gay clergy. The schism prompted more than 7,000 congregations to leave the UMC, many joining more theologically conservative bodies such as the Global Methodist Church.
In April 2024, the Alabama Supreme Court rejected a denomination conference petition to dismiss Harvest’s lawsuit, with Associate Justice Greg Cook ruling that civil courts have jurisdiction to resolve church-property disputes as long as they can do so on neutral legal principles without settling a religious controversy.
More than a dozen similar cases remain active in Alabama courts, brought by other congregations that broke away from the denomination and contest its claims to their property. Many of the congregations have joined the Global Methodist Church.
In May 2023, the Alabama-West Florida Conference approved the disaffiliations of 193 congregations in a special session, leaving 318 churches affiliated with the denomination in the region.
