A Richmond judge again is being asked to step into the fight for control of a divided Fourth Baptist Church and stop the pastor and its deacons from trying anew to oust their opponents — six trustees, the chair of the Finance Committee and the church treasurer.

Judge W. Reilly Marchant is to hear the new plea on Tuesday, June 1, just four days before a called congregational meeting on Saturday, June 5, to consider ousting the eight individuals from their posts as was done in June 2020 after they opposed certain spending plans.

The eight also have been part of a faction of members that opposes the pastor’s controversial plan to incorporate the 162-year-old East End church.

In April, Judge Marchant issued a temporary injunction reinstating the eight ousted volunteer officials and barring the church from taking any further action to incorporate until an in-person congregational meeting could be held to vote on such issues.

The judge issued the restraining order after the ousted officials presented evidence that a substantial number of members was not able to participate in the virtual meetings at which votes were taken.

The judge is being asked to consider whether the upcoming meeting would violate the previous order and whether the pastor, Dr. William E. Jackson Sr., and the chair of the Deacon Ministry, Gerard A. Dabney, can bar those being targeted for ouster from participating and voting.

In a letter to the congregation announcing the meeting, Dr. Jackson and Mr. Dabney stated that those facing ouster could not speak or take part in the meeting, that an independent, third-party moderator would conduct the session and that two separate teams would handle the vote counting to ensure accuracy.

In the letter, they wrote that dismissal of the eight officials is warranted because they have become “an offense to the church and to its good name by reason of immoral or un-Christian-like conduct.” Their offense: They filed a civil suit to overturn their original dismissal rather than settling the issue in a “Christian manner” as spelled out in the Bible.

The letter also alleges that the “trustees and Finance Team breached their spiritual and fiduciary dues” by seeking to lay off rather than continue to pay the church’s four part-time staff after the building was closed because of the pandemic and in voting not to seek in 2020 a government Payroll Protection Program loan to ensure there was money to cover wages.

Meanwhile, the church’s law firm, Showers & Associates, has set up a new corporation, Fourth Baptist Church at P Street in Richmond , VA , according to the State Corporation Commission, though no officers or directors were listed. The congregation would need to vote to approve it before the corporation could become fully operational.