NEW YORK (RNS) — More than two dozen members of Harlem’s Abyssinian Baptist Church, dressed as if for a Sunday service, filled a lower Manhattan courtroom Thursday morning (July 17) to attend the first hearing in a lawsuit seeking to remove the Rev. Kevin Johnson as the historically Black church’s senior pastor, alleging irregularities in how Johnson’s election was conducted and a lack of transparency.
The suit, filed in October by four current and former church members — C. Vernon Mason Sr., Kevin McGruder, Jasmine McFarlane-White and Clarence Ball III — claims Johnson’s election didn’t comply with the church’s bylaws. The plaintiffs also question whether the pastoral search committee, which presented Johnson as the sole candidate to the congregation, was biased.
In their suit, filed in the Civil Branch of the New York Supreme Court, the group demands that the court nullify the election and render Johnson ineligible in future rounds of church elections.
The church sought to dismiss the lawsuit in December, claiming it was “nothing more than a scheme developed by Petitioners to remove the duly-elected pastor of a historic Baptist Church in Harlem, simply so they can propose a candidate whom they believe is more spiritually qualified for the position,” according to the motion. …