Battle Over 103-Year-Old Woman Who Was Kicked Out of Her Church Over Doctrinal Dispute With Her Pastor Concludes — and She's Absolutely 'Elated\

A Georgia church's intense drama over a 103-year-old woman who was reportedly banned from attending services by her former pastor has concluded, with that woman —  Genora Hamm Biggs — once again being permitted to be a member at Union Grove Baptist Church.

As TheBlaze previously reported, the Rev. Tim Mattox sparked national outrage for reportedly kicking Biggs out; then he was subsequently “fired” by some of his church flock.

Initially, he and his supporters in the church didn't back down, and the dispute was slated to be hashed out in court in the coming days.

But on Wednesday, Mattox and his supporters held a press conference and announced that they are leaving Union Grove Baptist Church to form their own house of worship named New Bethel — a church that they said Biggs will not be invited to attend, WXIA-TV reported.

"The actual members of Union Grove Baptist Church are leaving the church and disassociating," attorney Adrian Patrick said, explaining that the church is now in Biggs' hands. "We are basically leaving it all to Ms. Genora Hamm Biggs and the other members of the church."

Mattox also shared that he has faced death threats since his decision to remove Biggs from the church went viral.

Supporters of Biggs have defended her and decried Mattox's decision to remove her, but those on the pastor's side say that she was disruptive and created problems in the church.

Either way, Biggs said that she wishes everyone well.

"I want them to come back if they want to be Baptist," she told WXIA-TV. "I want them all back but if they feel like they want to be Holiness then let them go with Reverend Mattox."

Biggs' attorney Ken Dious told Fox News that his client is "elated" over the decision, as she has attended Union Grove for 92 years.

"This is the only church she's ever known," Dious said. "It was her grandfather who started that church."

Before the decision to split, the spat between Mattox and Biggs had heated up on September 20, when church members who support Biggs reportedly met following service on Sunday to vote for Mattox’s removal and subsequently issued a letter telling him to remove his belongings from the property — a mandate that the pastor initially ignored.

The battle between Biggs and Mattox caught national attention after the preacher and church deacon Glen Jackson purportedly revoked the 103-year-old woman’s longstanding membership and precluded her from attending services.

The disagreement between the two apparently centers on differences over church practices such as the laying of hands, which Biggs — who was once Mattox’s teacher — opposes, though it is unclear what else might have unfolded that led to the initial ban.

“He is a holy sanctified minister or so he says. We voted him in and we didn’t know it until he was there,” Biggs told the Associated Press earlier this month. “We are Baptists and that’s what we want to stay.”

The church initially defended the decision, saying that a vote to retract membership was held in August, though Biggs refused to stop attending. Splitting the church in two appears to be the only remedy to help ease the situation.

(H/T: WXIA-TV)