Berkaw v. Mayflower Congregational Church

This .suit is the result of a split vote in the Mayflower Congregational Church of Detroit *241(253 for and 204 against) over -whether to become affiliated with the United Church of Christ, a relatively new denomination formed in recent years by a merger of the Evangelical and Reformed Church and a large number of assenting member churches of the Congregational Christian Churches of the United States, an association of autonomous churches.1 Plaintiffs brought this class action as part of the 204-member minority of Mayflower who voted against their particular church becoming a part of the United…