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State supreme court rules in United Methodist property case

6/5/2001

By United Methodist News Service

The Wisconsin State Supreme Court has upheld the trust relationship that allows a United Methodist annual (regional) conference to preserve local church property that is no longer being used for United Methodist purposes.

The court's decision, announced May 29, was based on a state statute that says, "Whenever any local Methodist church or society shall become defunct or be dissolved, the rights, privileges and title to the property thereof, both real and personal, shall vest in the annual conference and be administered according to the rules and discipline of said church."

The statute is consistent with the historic trust clause instituted by Methodism's founder, John Wesley, in England and transported to American Methodism in the 1700s. Courts have repeatedly upheld the trust clause during the church's 200-plus history in the United States.

The Wisconsin case involved the Elo United Methodist Church in Pickett, Wis., founded in the 1840s.

In 1997, the 119-member Elo congregation voted almost unanimously to break away from the United Methodist denomination over doctrinal issues. Congregational leaders disavowed the United Methodist Church, took down the United Methodist signs, tried to evict the United Methodist pastor and converted the church building and parsonage for use by the independent "Elo Evangelical Church."

Leaders in the Wisconsin Conference tried for two years to resolve the dispute amicably, according to attorney Jon Furlow. "The conference filed the lawsuit very reluctantly, but had no choice because it was necessary to preserve the church property for United Methodists to use for worship in the Pickett area."

Furlow said he was grateful that the court had resolved the issue. "It is important that the United Methodist Church be able to make sure that its local churches continue to be used for United Methodist worship."

Two dissenting votes were cast in the decision by the seven-member court. "The (Elo) trustees are not entitled to retain the property for whatever purposes they see fit without regard to the interests of the conference and the United Methodist Church," the court ruled.

Because of the trust clause under which the Elo property is held for the benefit of the United Methodist Church, "it is beyond the powers of the Elo trustees to disassociate the property from the United Methodist Church," the court said.

Pointing to an earlier case in the New York Annual Conference, the justices note that "although the members of a local church may secede from a hierarchical system, they cannot secede and take the church property with them."

The justices concluded that "as a consequence of the Elo congregation's unequivocal withdrawal from the United Methodist Church and the conference, the Elo church was rendered a defunct or dissolved local Methodist church" within the meaning of the state statute.

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