Articles relating to the disaffiliation of local United Methodist Churches from the denomination because of conscience related to the full inclusion and participation of "homosexual" persons, including especially Lesbian, Gay, and Bisexual Christians in the UMC. You can find background on this here.
By Sam Hodges
March 1, 2023 | UM News
Key points:
- The Lewis Center for Church Leadership has done a report that compares characteristics of disaffiliating churches with those remaining in The United Methodist Church.
- The large majority of exiting churches are in the South and Southwest.
- Disaffiliating churches are more likely than remaining churches to have a male pastor and to have a majority white membership.
- United Methodist Council of Bishops President Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton said the report has information that can help guide the denomination as it seeks to renew itself, including in areas where many churches have disaffiliated.
Church court addresses disaffiliation questions
By Heather Hahn
March 1, 2023 | UM News
The United Methodist Church’s top court released nine rulings March 1 related to a church law that governs how congregations can leave the denomination with property.
The eight decisions and memorandum from the United Methodist Judicial Council all stem from questions raised about the Book of Discipline’s new Paragraph 2553 — approved by the 2019 Special General Conference in St. Louis.
by Cynthia B. Astle, February 22, 2023 (Used by permission)
Note: St. Andrew United Methodist Church in Plano, Texas, had decided to leave The United Methodist Church. But the decision was made by St. Andrew’s executive committee, not through a two-thirds congregational vote as required in Paragraph 2553 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline.
One of the largest United Methodist congregations in Texas that had sought to circumvent the denomination's process on disaffiliation has relented and allowed its members to vote on exit, as well as agreeing to pay the required departure fees to retain its property.
Read more: Texas Megachurch Relents, Follows UMC Rules to Exit Denomination
by Cynthia B. Astle, February 13, 2023 (Used by permission)
Adapted from Baptist News Global
Disaffiliation tops concerns for many clergy and laity these days as about 1,800 congregations out of 30,000 U.S. churches have left since 2019. However, not all the votes for disaffiliation have succeeded, and when that happens, there’s often a trail of damaged spirits and depleted resources left behind.
Disaffiliations Approved by Annual Conferences
by UM News
The chart in the article shows UM News’ count of how many church disaffiliations have been approved by annual conferences. The tally comes from a UM News review of U.S. annual conference reports, publicly available journals and reports of the 17 special annual conference sessions this year. The General Council on Finance and Administration, the denomination’s finance agency, is collecting the official data on disaffiliations and church closures. But the finance agency’s count of disaffiliations lags behind UM News’ data because it must wait for annual conferences to submit official reports.
Total disaffiliations, as retrieved July 14, 2023, were 12 in 2019, 47 in 2020, 124 in 2021, 308 in regular 2022 ssessions, and 1518 in special sessions, 4172 in 2023, for a total of 6181.
The chart is here.
Here is an excellent resource from editor Cynthia Astle of UM-Insight.net on the disaffiliation issue in the UMC. It was in a subscription e-mail from UM-Insight on September 30, 2022. I would encourage you to subscribe to this excellent site, hosted by St. Stephens UMC, Mesquite, Texas. Subscribe here.
Editor Astle introduces this 71-page resource (emphases in the original):
One of the frustrations in reporting on The United Methodist Church since 1988 is that the issues and events which seem so important to the denomination's movers and shakers rarely filter down to the grassroots majority in pew and pulpit. This painful reality has spurred the creation of this resource from content published on United Methodist Insight from Jan. 1 through Sept. 30, 2022.
- Bishop Carter Calls Out Dissident Churches
- My Church is Being Led to Disaffiliate from The UMC, but I Want to #BeUMC - What Can I Do?
- Church court clarifies property-transfer rules
- Some Ways to Cope When the UMC Division Turns Nasty
- Conference Disaffiliation Resources
- Resources from Wespath
- Disaffiliation information
- Church court clarifies disaffiliation rules