439 congregations took a vote to leave The United Methodist Church due to the Protestant denomination’s ongoing disagreement over LGBT.
UMC regional bodies in Texas approved breakaway votes of hundreds of churches and would join the Global Methodist Church created recently.
The Dallas Morning News reported that the number of congregations includes 294 of the 598 churches belonging to the Houston-based Central Texas Conference and 145 of the 201 churches belonging to the Lubbock-based Northwest Texas Conference.
The congregations that are departing make up almost half of all UMC congregations in Texas, including those churches whose departures have been affirmed by their regional bodies.
The UMC has faced a divisive debate over its official stance on homosexuality expressed in its Book of Discipline, prohibiting the blessing of same-sex unions and proscribing the ordination of noncelibate homosexuals.
Though liberals within the circle have failed to change the stance, many leaders refused to abide by the rules, leading to much frustration among theological conservatives.
This is exemplified by the election of Rev. Karen Oliveto as bishop of the UMC Mountain Sky Area. Though the United Methodist Judicial Council declared her election invalid in 2017 because she is in a same-sex marriage, she retains her position
Mark Tooley, head of the theologically conservative Institute on Religion & Democracy stated that the churches that have left the UMC in recent months are over 1,300 and stated that more is to be expected.
“By the end of next year (the deadline for exiting with church property), at least 3,000 and possibly 5,000 churches are expected to exit,” wrote Tooley the day before the Texas conferences finalized the churches’ departure.
“Denominational agencies are preparing for a 38 percent drop in funding for 2025-2028, which implies an approximate expected membership loss of 2.3 million members from the nearly 6.3 million the denomination had in the United States in 2020. That is not a minor exodus.”
The Rev. Nathan Lonsdale Bledsoe, the senior pastor of St. Stephen’s United Methodist Church of Houston, reported that the breakout is evidence of divisiveness in the USA.
“It parallels this moment in the broader world,” said Bledsoe, whose congregation plans to remain with the UMC. “It’s a hard time to bring people together. We really reflect the brokenness of the culture and the world.”
“The future is bright, especially because God has something to do with it,” said North Carolina Bishop Leonard E. Fairley in a statement. “We know the end of this story because of who Jesus Christ is. May you hold each other dear regardless of what we voted on here. Hold each other dear in your prayers.”
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