A dispute over a shared parental custody agreement dealing with the religious training of a minor child has reached the Supreme Judicial Court of Maine.
The parents, Matthew Bradeen and Emily Bickford, never married and parted ways before their daughter was born in 2013.
At the time of their breakup, the parents entered into a shared custody agreement concerning decisions involving their child’s medical and mental health and religious upbringing.
Bradeen and Bickford abided by the 50–50 custody arrangement without major conflict for eight years.
However, in 2021, shortly after Bickford and the minor child started attending the Calvary Chapel of Portland, an independent, nondenominational, fundamental Christian church, Bradeen asked the Portland District Court to modify the custody agreement to protect the child from alleged psychological harm from exposure to the teachings of that church by prohibiting any contact with that ministry, according to court filings cited in this article….