Bermuda Bombshell

Doctrinal issues loom large as judge awards property
to dissident Methodists

Gwynneth and Willard Lightbourne led faction claiming church building and manse.

In a court case that could have far reaching legal implications, a Supreme Court judge in Bermuda has not only awarded a $2-million property to a small group of renegade Methodists but questioned the United Church’s adherence to its own doctrine.

In the surface, the fight for Grace Methodist Church pitted a faction backed By Bermuda Synod (a Presbytery in the United Church’s Maritime Conference) against one opposed to the United Church’s liberal theology and decisions on gay ordination (Church, May 1997). When it came to court last March, however, the case gave some Canadian opponents of liberal United Church policies a chance to re-argue the case against gay ordination that had been effectively lost in the courts of the church.

Toronto Lawyer Ian Outerbridge, an authority on the United Church Manual who has represented several clergy in legal battles against the church, joined the rebel Methodists’ local legal team as Queen’s Counsel. Rev. Victor Shepherd, minister at Streetsville (Ont.) United, a John Wesley scholar and outspoken opponent of gay ordination, provided expert testimony on the United Church’s current theological position as it relates to Wesley’s 25 Articles.

While the discontent among many of Bermuda’s Methodists has its roots in the gap between Bermudian conservatism and the liberal theology and policies of the national United Church, the fight over Grace Methodist Church, was over use of the church and manse property on the island’s north shore.

Because the church’s deed clearly states the property would revert to the heirs of the original donors unless used for ‘religious and moral purposes in accordance with the doctrine, rules and usages of the Methodist Church and for no other uses intents or purposes whatever," the dissident faction, led by lay preachers Gwynneth and Willard Lightbourne, set out to prove they were the true heirs of the Methodist heritage while the United Church has strayed.

Bermuda Synod and its lawyers, for their part, believing the judge wouldn’t entertain theological arguments, simply dealt with the deed as a non-theological property matter, confident that Synod’s Methodism could not be challenged. As Synod Secretary Rev. Victor MacLeod says, he and Synod’s lawyers were "very much surprised," when the court ruled on theology.

Judge Norma Wade-Miller herself expressed surprise that the Synod offered no expert witnesses to counter Shepherd’s Wesleyan analysis of current United Church theology. (The details of his testimony had been given to Synod’s lawyers at least a week before the trial began.) Although Synod’s lawyer tried to dismiss Shepherd’s statements as only an opinion, the judge accepted Shepherd’s testimony that the United Church has contravened Wesley’s 25 Articles "in its articulation of its formal theology and its fostering of its day-to-day operative theology."

Shepherd, who occupies the chair of Wesley Studies at Toronto’s Tyndale Seminary, traveled to Bermuda for the week-long trial last March. During the trial Shepherd testified that United Church documents on sexuality, the New Creed, amendments in Voices United and the Authority of Scripture and the Mending the World reports would have been rejected by Wesley and that the Executive of General Council’s recent theological exchange with the moderator also violates the 25 Articles.

Wesley’s 25 Articles are central to Methodist doctrine and are also "congruent" with the 20 Articles of Faith in the United Church’s Basis of Union, Shepherd testified, adding that the United Church has strayed form the Basis of Union. As Shepherd explained in a later interview, "You can’t for a minute pretend that you can square the pronouncements of the United Church over the past 10 years with Wesley."

Although the congregation at Grace Methodist is the first in the mid-Atlantic British colony to wind up in the courts, it’s not the only one in Bermuda to seek separation from the United Church. A majority of Methodists voted to stay within the United Church in a 1993 referendum which say congregations with predominantly black membership voting strongly in favor of leaving the United Church, while the larger, racially mixed or predominantly white congregations voted to stay. The Cobb’s Hill Methodist Church and Somerset Wesleyan Methodist churches were already operating independently of Synod when the fight over Grace church began in earnest over two years ago.

When one faction at Grace, led by the Lightbournes, informed Synod more than two years ago that it wanted to cease United Church affiliation, a group of opposing congregation members appealed for Synod’s help. The result was competing worship services, bitter public exchanges, changed locks, a series of lawsuits and finally a week-long trial last March.

While admitting that control of Brace Methodist’s valuable property on Bermuda’s north shore was at the heart of the recent lawsuit, Outerbridge says the theological significance is farther-ranging. It means, he says, that "the party line at [United Church national offices on} Bloor St. is wrong. They have change the Basis of Union. And it’s been shown judicially."

Added Shepherd: "A Supreme Court judge within the British Commonwealth has pronounced the United Church to be wholly at odds with its own doctrinal basis. This I think has momentous significance. If a church is defined by its doctrine, are we a church? Not only that, but if the legal entity is related to the entity so defined, what is the legal status of the United Church? Where are we with respect to wills and bequests? Where are we with respect to church discipline?"

While the principles that underlie the Bermuda case may have some application in Canadian court cases dealing with similar property situations, the Bermuda decision, even if upheld by the British Privy Council in appeal, would likely have only "persuasive value" in Canada, according to United Church staff lawyer Cynthia Gunn.

According to Outerbridge, the legal precedents and principles which helped win the Bermuda case could be used to ask Canadian courts to hand United Church property over t members who adhere to the Basis of Union, which outlines the United Church’s stated doctrine. The lawyer – who has a family connection to Bermuda – also admits, though, that any such attempt would take deep pockets and great determination, And such a case, no doubt, would not go unchallenged by expert theologians arguing the United Church’s case.

According to Rev. Peter Wyatt, General Council general secretary for theology and faith, the judge in the Bermuda case accepted the ‘assumption that fidelity to Methodism is constituted by a strict iteration of Wesleyan statement of the late 18^th century." While Shepherd said Wesley "abhorred novelty or change" and would have opposed United Church statements and policies around sexuality, Wyatt says, "I think it’s quite a leap to say that Wesley would have some down on the side of narrow definition and strict interpretation" and never spoke directly on questions of the ordination of self-declared homosexuals.

Rev. Catherine Gaw, executive secretary of Maritime Conference, who visited Bermuda shortly after the decision was released and attended a home worship service with members of Grace Methodist Church who remain loyal to Synod, calls the judge’s ruling "troubling" and admits there may be some attempt to use the ruling in Canada. However, she says she was also baffled by the courts acceptance of an interpretation of Wesley.

"How do you speak for a man who’s been dead for, what, about 200 years? I mean, it’s been a while since John Wesley shared his thought with us."

According to Shepherd, though, the Bermuda decision has nothing to do with what Wesley might say today but what he actually set out as doctrine during his own time. "the crucial thing . . . is the precise nature of doctrine." While General Council decisions and edicts aren’t doctrine, says Shepherd, most people don’t understand that. "A lot of people assume that because we are a non-creedal church we are atheological. And that’s not the case at all."

For the members of the dissident congregation at Grace Methodist (35-50 attend worship regularly) the task of remaining faithful to Methodism continues. They hope to call an ordained minister sometime in the future and have invited Shepherd to visit this fall, to preach and spend a week offering workshops on Wesley’s teachings.

Meanwhile, Lightbourne says, "We didn’t want to do to court, but they (Synod) wanted to put is in the streets. . . I think we always felt we would have settled God’s business without going to the courts. We regret it and it has cost us dearly" Neither Lightbourne nor the Synod will say how much the legal case has cost; but are trying to raise money to defray their legal expenses. While the Lightbournes, successful local hotel owners and businesspeople, financed their own legal case, Synod paid its lawyers with the help of Maritime Conference.

The other cost, though, which is just as hard to estimate, is in lost confidence in the United Church’s Bermuda ministry and the long-term implications of deciding religious questions in courts of law. While Bermuda Synod may continue to provide ministers to the four racially mixed congregations, Marsden Memorial congregation – another largely black congregations that has already split over the gay ordination question – will likely be next to leave Synod.

Rev. Charles Swan, a retired minister from Bermuda who served United Church pastorates in Canada before retiring, says Maritime Conference’s main downfall has been its failure to place Bermudians in Bermuda’s Methodist pulpits. The court decision, he says, could serve notice that "maybe the Maritime Conference has outlived its usefulness on the island and maybe it’s time to pull out gracefully."

For now, Bermuda Synod carries on, is getting further legal advice on the decision and plans to appeal.

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