By Tom Hurney
In an important case on religious freedom under the First Amendment of the United States and West Virginia Constitutions, the Supreme Court of Appeals of West Virginia applied the Ecclesiastical Abstention doctrine to prohibit a circuit court from reopening a property dispute brought by 33 local churches. The local churches sought to disaffiliate from the Methodist Conference over disagreements with church doctrine but sued in an attempt to retain church property. Under the Methodist Discipline, “ownership and usage of church property is subject to the Discipline” and is held in trust “for the benefit of the entire denomination.”
In an opinion by Justice Trump in State ex rel. Trustees of the W. Va. Conference of the United Methodist Church v. Wills, No. 26-198, 2026 W. Va. LEXIS 457 (Nov. 4, 2026), the Supreme Court found the circuit court did not have subject matter jurisdiction because resolving the dispute would require the court to interpret and apply the Church’s governing law and review decisions made by the Conference about the local church’s disaffiliation. These acts, the Court found, were prohibited by the First Amendment’s Ecclesiastical Abstention doctrine (also referred to as the Church Autonomy doctrine). The circuit court was therefore barred from deciding the issue of property ownership because to do so would require it to “intrude upon matters reserved to ecclesiastical authorities.”
This case is important because it recognizes that the federal and state Constitutional guarantees of Freedom of Religion mean that “when resolution of a civil dispute depends upon matters committed to ecclesiastical determination,” civil courts “may not independently resolve those matters but must accept as conclusive the determinations reached by the churches’ highest tribunals.” In other words, civil court’s exercise of power is limited: “[W]hen resolution of a civil dispute depends upon matters committed to ecclesiastical determination, the civil courts may not independently resolve those matters but must accept as conclusive the determinations reached by the churches’ highest tribunals.”
Jackson Kelly PLLC attorneys Wendy Adkins, Dale Harrison, and Shane Harvey represented the Trustees of the W. Va. Conference of the United Methodist Church. Ms. Adkins argued the case before the Supreme Court.