At last 130 churches have separated from the United Methodist Church over the main church’s decision to allow gay clergy and same-sex marriage.
The churches breaking away from the United Methodist Church General Conference will be allowed to keep their churches and properties due to a “conscience clause” that the conference added to their constitution in 2019.
The split will result in two denominations, one that bows to the LGBTQ agenda and one that holds to the church’s original teaching.
The churches splitting from the main will be responsible for paying the pension plans of their pastors and other employees and the legal papers need to file for separation.
According to the Washington Times:
United Methodists are the largest contingent in the global Methodist movement. In 2018, the denomination reported 6.4 million members and 30,543 congregations in the United States, with an equal number of lay members in Africa, Asia and Europe, where the United Methodists have 12,869 congregations.
Although the loss of 130 U.S. churches may seem small compared with the total number of affiliated churches, the departures underscore the unease in many congregations about issues of sexuality and biblical interpretation.
Still, Methodist churches have been suffering the same fate of many other denominations with the size of congregations shrinking.
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Tags: Christians Church Commentary religion
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