“. . . and that to his knowledge no other churches were planning to leave the UMC.”
Either artfully said, OR he has his head in the sand. I guarantee, regardless of the outcome of the February conference, individual churches (and individuals) will be leaving at the conclusion of the conference.
Problem is that in the UMC, the individual congregations do not own the church building, the State Conference does.
They can change the name of the congregation, but, then they will be forced to leave the building. It’s held up in court.
The Episcopalians do this too.