CT Court Upholds Church In Dispute With Parent Body Over Pastor, Property

In Annual Conf. of Unison Freewill Baptist Church v. St. Luke's Unison Freewill Baptist Church, 2005 Conn. Super. LEXIS 1771 (Conn. Super. Ct., July 20, 2005), The Annual Conference of the Unison Free Will Baptist Church, its presiding bishop and various current and former members of St. Luke's Unison Freewill Baptist Church sued to remove Rev. Jesse Polite, Pastor of St. Luke's, and to gain control of the church property. Plaintiffs allege that various defendants have refused to recognize the authority of the Annual Conference to remove Rev. Polite. The majority of the congregation supported Rev. Polite and had voted to withdraw from the Annual Conference. The court decided that the church here had a congregational, and not an hierarchical, structure, and the the articles and by-laws of the church do not support the authority of the Annual Conference to suspend the pastor or determine disputes about the ownership of church property.