“It is important to focus on who is staying and moving forward in the continuing United Methodist Church.” “Some are leaving but the number of churches and members moving forward is far larger,” said Hope Morgan Ward, retired bishop of the North Carolina conference. But four years into what has been depicted as a breakup of the denomination, the picture is less climactic than anticipated. The high-stakes duel has hit some regions of the country harder than others. Others are forcing the issue through civil courts.īut whatever the final tally may be, the analysis suggests the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination-numbering 6.4 million US members and 13 million worldwide-may weaken but is unlikely to break. Those churches can take their properties with them after paying apportionments and pension liabilities. The denomination’s disaffiliation plan gives churches until December 31 to cut ties, and many have already made known their desire to leave. There are no good figures for international departures among the estimated 12,000 United Methodist churches abroad. That analysis of data collected by the church’s General Council on Finance and Administration shows 6.1 percent of United Methodist churches in the US-1,831 congregations out of 30,000 nationwide-have been granted permission to disaffiliate since 2019. Since then, a new analysis has found, it’s fallen well short of that. Nearly four years ago, the United Methodist Church approved an exit plan for churches wishing to break away from the global denomination over differing beliefs about sexuality, setting in motion what many believed would be a modern-day schism.
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