Davis v. New Zion Baptist Church

DIETZ, Judge.

*224 This dispute between a church and some of its former members returns to us for a second time. Our review is constrained by the mandate in the previous decision of this Court, and the limits on judicial intervention in the governance of religious bodies established in the First Amendment to the United States Constitution.

As explained below, we affirm the trial court's judgment that, applying neutral principles of law, the church did not follow the procedure established in its bylaws when it attempted to amend them. Because the bylaws govern some non-ecclesiastical issues…