The United Methodist Church (UMC) is experiencing a historic rift within its community. In December 2022, over 400 churches in Texas voted to leave their parent denomination, following other congregations in North Carolina, Alabama, Georgia, Louisiana, Arkansas and Florida that left the church en masse.
Now, hundreds of delegates gathered at Christ United Methodist Church in Plano on Saturday, March 4, for the North Texas Conference to vote for the departure of 41 local congregations from the denomination (via NBCDFW.)
According to The Dallas Morning News, the split within the denomination results from a disagreement among the community regarding the inclusion of LGBTQ people. This dispute found expression during the 2019 UMC General Conference — UMC’s highest lawmaking body— when, by a slim margin, the conference affirmed a conservative stance against the ordinance of openly gay ministers and same-sex marriage.
Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. from the Dallas episcopal area, referenced this disagreement in his speech during the Plano Conference, saying that in order to retain the younger generations the church needs to send a message that is welcoming and affirming. “The young millennial and Z generation … they’re not many in our pews,” he said. “Significant percentages of these new generations will give up on the church, and many will give up on God.”
Even though the conservative stance won the vote in 2019, it’s the more conservative congregations that are leaving the UMC. Ted Campbell, a professor at Southern Methodist University’s Perkins School of Theology, told The Dallas Morning News that these conservative circles are frustrated by the lack of enforcement of the stance.
During the 2019 General Conference, a new provision was approved that gave churches the option of disaffiliating from the UMC.
“Because of the current deep conflict within The United Methodist Church around issues of human sexuality, a local church shall have a limited right … to disaffiliate from the denomination for reasons of conscience regarding … the practice of homosexuality or the ordination or marriage of self-avowed practicing homosexuals,” reads the provision.
The exit plan for departing congregations expires on December 31, 2023, and the provision states that, in order for the disaffiliation to take place, it needs the vote of two-thirds of processing members and it has to be approved by the annual conference or regional governing body.
Other churches put the decision to vote but opted to stay in the denomination. On November 2022, the Lovers Lane United Methodist Church based in Preston Hollow decided against the disaffiliation with 90% of the votes in favor to stay.
“We’re just fine being United Methodist,” Stan Copeland, senior pastor at Lovers Lane UMC told The Dallas Morning News. “In fact, we’re excited about it. We’re excited about our community, we are excited about our future, we’re excited about where we’re going.”
At Saturday’s conference, Reverend Macie Liptoi, associate pastor of First McKinney UMC questioned the disaffiliation agreement of St. Andrew UMC in Plano, the second largest congregation in the conference. Liptoi argued that St. Andrew’s announcement statement did not follow the reasons for leaving given by the provision.
St. Andrew’s disaffiliation statement said that “The fact is, we can protect our finances, our property and our pastors by going in a new direction.”
Following the discussion, an overwhelming majority voted to approve the departure of all 41 congregations. According to The Dallas Morning News, Rev. Liptoi said the vote was long awaited and even if things will never be the same, both sides feel relieved.
“We actually get to start anew,” she said. “I think the new United Methodist Church will be an exciting place to be.”
This is not the first time a political debate causes the church to split. According to Politico, the last major split in the church occurred almost 200 years ago in 1840 over the exclusion of slaveholders from the denomination. Because of the decentralized nature of many of the evangelical denominations at the time, it allowed congregations to disregard the church’s formally adopted stance against slavery in favor of attracting more parishioners in the south, causing a split with abolitionist circles.
“As a historian, It’s absolutely fascinating to watch because I’ve told the story to my students about the various divisions and reunions in our history,” said Campbell. “But up close and personal it really hurts.”
Although many point to the LGBTQ inclusion debate as the cause for the split, according to NBCDFW, some say a variety of conflicts such as finances and theology played a role in the dispute.
“The issue that has arisen more recently has been broader questions about theology, and local church control and official church doctrine, and quite frankly power,” noted William Lawrence, professor emeritus of Perkins School of Theology to The Dallas Morning News.