Posted on 11/23/2022 11:40:18 PM PST by Morgana
Nearly one-third of the congregations belonging to a regional body of The United Methodist Church have left the mainline Protestant denomination amid its ongoing debate over homosexuality.
At a special called session of the UMC North Carolina Conference Saturday, delegates voted 957-165 to approve the disaffiliation votes of 249 congregations seeking to leave the denomination.
According to a statement from the North Carolina Conference, the number of departing congregations represented 32% of the regional body's member churches and about 22% of its membership.
"The future is bright, especially because God has something to do with it," said North Carolina Bishop Leonard E. Fairley.
"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."
Members of departing congregations who wish to remain with the UMC are given the option to connect to The United Methodist Collective of North Carolina, which the conference described as "a hybrid mission congregation created to provide connection and resources related to worship, discipleship, mission, sacraments, and pastoral care for people living in areas where there may no longer be a United Methodist church after the disaffiliation process is complete."
In addition to the recently approved departure of the 249 congregations from the North Carolina Conference, the Western North Carolina Conference reported 41 of their 990 congregations voted to disaffiliate earlier this year, with at least seven others recently beginning the process of discernment for disaffiliation.
(Excerpt) Read more at christianpost.com ...
Regards,
Seems like it might be time to scrap the old name, "United Methodist Church," in favor of something more accurate, like "The Disunited Methodist Church."
Or maybe: "The Non-Binary Methodist Church."
Regards,
Where does Billary stand ?
The article doesn't make it clear: Are the departing congregations in favor of homosexuality, or vice-versa?
Regards,
I will assume they are against but was hoping a FReeper here who is UMC could give us some insight.
Noteworthy that the excerpt doesn't bother to make it clear! Told us lots of other, unimportant stuff, but not that!
Regards,
Yep. I am not sure what is the debate here. There’s a schism here. But who’s against homosexuality?
These churches are moving to a more conservative [read: eff globohomo] grouping - the Global Methodist Church, which apparently hews to the original mission of UMC [deys agin globohomo].
see post #9
They'll decline in influence because if you are liberal and not serious about religion, you are less likely to be a member of the church, even if it is "progressive".
for the rest, The UMC has gone FULL rainbow coalition in approving everything queer, and those who left said ... NOPE!
The news makes it look like the churchs that left are a bad thing. just the opposite.
Of course they did. Gotta manufacture that Christian homophobia.
All these articles use the word “debate” but apparently the modern progressive view was being cascaded down to the churches without any.
Or maybe: “The Non-Binary Methodist Church.”
🤣
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