United Methodists lose one-fifth of US churches in schism driven by growing defiance of LGBTQ bans

[Eugene]

Source: Associated Press

United Methodists lose one-fifth of US churches in schism driven by growing defiance of LGBTQ bans

BY PETER SMITH
Published 8:01 AM EDT, July 6, 2023

More than 6,000 United Methodist congregations — a fifth of the U.S. total — have now received permission to leave the denomination amid a schism over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination.

Those figures emerge following the close of regular meetings in June for the denomination’s regional bodies, known as annual conferences. The departures began with a trickle in 2019 — when the church created a four-year window of opportunity for U.S. congregations to depart over LGBTQ-related issues — and cascaded to its highest level this year.

Church law forbids the marriage or ordination of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,” but many conservatives have chosen to leave amid a growing defiance of those bans in many U.S. churches and conferences.

Many of the departing congregations are joining the Global Methodist Church, a denomination created last year by conservatives breaking from the UMC, while others are going independent or joining different denominations.

-snip-

Read more: https://apnews.com/article/united-methodist-churches-exit-lgbtq-clergy-marriage-fc83fd20ad003c6ecaac5ae60ddd5afd

[underpants]

1. Damn. This could mess up Sunday brunch plans all over

My wife’s Baptist preacher once started a sermon with “I’ll make this short so we can beat the Methodists to the buffet”

[yellowdogintexas]

9. oh we will still be there!!! First United Methodist has been taking over brunches

for decades. We are very close to a number of the best ones too.

[underpants]

10. 😆

[badhair77]

2. In a neighboring county almost every UM church

has started the transition to the Global UM church. I know the area has become more conservative but I’m stunned at this decision. My church is still deciding. If that happens I’m heading elsewhere. There is no way I could support that. For years the UM church has blamed the resistance to support gays on the African wing of the church. Clearly that was wrong.

[yellowdogintexas]

8. Actually, according to our Senior Pastor for the past 20 years, the African, some

of the South American delegates and I think the Philippines were the major resistance and there were enough US and other delegates who voted to keep defeating the motions. That margin has been shrinking and shrinking over the past several General Conferences. Every person I know who has attended General Conference can attest to the influence of these conservative delegations.

Our church did not even call for a vote. The largest churches in our county are all staying in the UMC. There will of course be shifting around amongst individuals who will seek the opposite of what the congregation as a whole is doing. That is fine.
There will be mergers of smaller congregations which join the Global or declare themselves "non denominational". I expect we will lose some members, but also gain some.

I am thankful that this is the way things have been resolved. For a long time I was convinced that the "Global folks" stirred this up in an attempt to soil the nest and make the rest of us leave. (I could hear them salivating over all the church property that would possibly be turned over to the local Annual Conference. Especially ours - we have 7 city blocks in downtown Fort Worth )

Once the issue of church property was settled, the way was clear for the progressive congregations to leave if needed. Instead the Globals ended up doing the leaving. I think there is a deadline by which a church can leave the UMC without surrendering property. I don't remember if the Bishop and District Superintendents had to approve a departure or not. That is possibly going to vary depending on the conference.

It's been a long hard road.

[70sEraVet]

3. In my town in rural Tennessee, the local Methodist church took the name off the building a few....

years ago. Its now the 'Christian Fellowship...something-or-other'.
I'm sure its been happening a lot in the rural South.

[kozar]

4. As a Methodist, it's not only LGBTQ

I stopped taking LilBit to our local church, when Pastor wouldn’t give her communion. I heard through the grapevine that a new pastor started this week, so I made call to speak with him
Long story short, he was yelling at me at end of call. But his answer was NO , she “ doesn’t understand the meaning of communion”
I’m really not sure where the Methodist church is going, but they will go there without us.

KozandLilBit

[yellowdogintexas]

5. we were never allowed to take Communion until we had "joined the church"

at Confirmation. This was in rural Kentucky way back in time (Lifelong Methodist)

The church I attend here in FW however does not do that. We truly practice the open table.

If you are in a metropolitan area, you might want to shop around.
One of the important things going on, is that most of the departing churches are smaller rural churches. The larger churches here are not leaving and in fact many did not even hold a vote. It stands to reason that folks in the departing churches who voted against leaving will migrate to the churches like ours. The reverse will also happen.

Also , a number of the smaller churches will disband and the congregation will then go to a different church.

One of the churches near Ft Worth went to the Global, leaving a number of families without an alternative that wasn't inconveniently located. Our recently retired Senior Pastor has spent the last year nurturing that group and now they are holding services and looking for a location.

[kozar]

12. Yellow dog, as Lil and I heard from a great preacher

“ and let the church say Amen” yes we are rural. To find urban, it’s 2 hours in car back and forth, I’m loadingLilBit , unloading her. Guess I’m being a “ picky” Christian?
I just need to find ANY church in my real area, that will welcome LilBit to His table.
Honestly, it shouldn’t be this hard.

KozandLilBit

[Rebl2]

6. How Christian

Of that new minister-NOT.

[Butterflylady]

7. Somehow I'm glad

I'm agnostic!

[badhair77]

11. It almost makes me become agnostic.