A 103-year-old woman who had been expelled from a church she had attended for 92 years, is reportedly back after she was allowed to once again attend service at Union Grove Baptist Church in Elberton, Georgia.
Genora Hamm Biggs, a parishioner since she was 11, was banned last month from attending activities after she opposed the preaching style of the church pastor, Rev. Tim Mattox of Athens, according to Fox News.
In an ironic twist of fate, Mattox is now the one leaving the church along with other members of the congregation, who said they will be forming a new church.
Mattox claimed that since Biggs' expulsion he has been receiving death threats.
Biggs was reportedly handed the key to the church and is now responsible, along with a handful of other members, for electing a new pastor.
The retired school teacher who taught first grade for 40 years in Elbert County expressed hope that those church members who left will one day come back, said her lawyer.
Biggs reportedly described the pastor's preaching style as a "Holiness style" which she claimed doesn't belong in the Baptist church.
"He is a holy sanctified minister or so he says. We voted him in and we didn't know it until he was there. We are Baptists and that's what we want to stay," Biggs said, according Onlineathens.com
Tensions between the two came to a head in early August when Mattox sent her a letter stating she could no longer attend church there "for any reason whatsoever," Fox affiliate WAGA-TV reported.
Despite the Aug. 2 admonition from Mattox, Deacon Glen Jackson of Elberton, and nine others who signed the letter, she reportedly returned to church the next Sunday, which prompted the church to call the police. But the responding officer took no action, calling it a civil matter.
It's been over a month since and Biggs is "elated'' to return to Union Grove this Sunday, her legal counsel Ken Dious told FoxNews.
"This is the only church she's ever known," he said. "It was her grandfather who started that church."
