Over the weekend, two of the four United Methodist Church regional bodies in Texas met and approved requests from more than 400 churches to leave the United Methodist Church. The majority of the departing churches plan to join the Global Methodist Church, which disagrees with a large portion of the United Methodist Church on issues like same-sex marriage and homosexuality.
Almost half of the Methodist churches in Texas are leaving the United Methodist Church.
The Central Texas Conference, based in Houston, approved the disaffiliation of all of the churches that voted to leave the United Methodist Church. All of the 145 churches that voted to leave the Northwest Texas Conference were given the go-ahead. The Central Texas Conference approved the departure of 81 of its 185 congregation, and 44 of the Dallas-based North Texas Conference are in the process of leaving the United Methodist Church.
The ordination of "self-avowed practicing homosexuals" and the banning of same-sex marriage were upheld by conservatives at the national convention of the United Methodist Church. The delegates voted to allow churches to split from the UMC if they take certain steps before the end of the year.
Many conservative churches are unhappy with the delays in implementing the plan for an amicable split because of the COVID-19 Pandemic. A small percentage of the more than 30,000 churches in the United Methodist Church have been disaffiliated.
Ryan Burge, an Eastern Illinois University professor of religion and political science, told The Texas Tribune that the mainline is going to be even more marginalized because of the split. They have always been the opposite of evangelicals.
The pastor of St. Stephen's United Methodist Church said it was difficult to bring people together. The culture and the world are broken.
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