Centre County churches in court as congregation seeks to disaffiliate

BELLEFONTE, Pa. (WTAJ) – Two Centre County churches appeared in court on Tuesday after one congregation is seeking to disaffiliate itself from the other.

The congregation of the Curtin United Methodist Church defended itself in court Aug. 6, against the plaintiff, Susquehanna Conference of The United Methodist Church, who believes that the members are unlawfully occupying the church.

Curtin United claims that Susquehanna has appointed homosexual people into leadership positions, which led them to want to disaffiliate themselves from the greater Susquehanna Church.

"We can't sit under false teaching. So, we want to leave the church," John Beahm, a defendant, said.

Susquehanna representatives said that the congregation did meet a deadline to officially disaffiliate, which is why they claim that the members are not allowed to occupy the church anymore.

However, the congregation ran into an issue early. Nonprofits like churches are not able to represent themselves and the members were not able to secure an attorney beforehand due to disagreements over "subject matter." John Beahm said that they have gone through roughly 20 attorneys, but no one was willing ...