(AL.COM) -- A Birmingham-based church association faces allegations that it tried to cover up and did not do enough to prevent the alleged sexual abuse of a Florida woman by her pastor, according to a lawsuit filed in Palm Beach County, Fla.
The Association of Related Churches (ARC), which launches and supports nondenominational evangelical churches around the country, is named as a defendant in the lawsuit filed earlier this year by a woman identified in court documents only as “Jane Doe.” ARC’s main offices are located in Birmingham.
Doe’s former church, Newsound Church of Palm Beach County, Fla., is also a defendant.