261 Georgia congregations leave the United Methodist Church because it’s not anti-LGBTQ+ enough

Tension over LGBTQ+ issues came to a head this weekend for the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church (NGUMC), which approved the disaffiliation requests of 261 congregations that feel the religion is becoming too progressive.

While the religion officially bans same-sex marriage and LGBTQ+ clergy, many churches have reportedly been skirting the rules as of late, which has caused ire among the more conservative congregations.

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In 2019, the  General Conference of The United Methodist Church announced that churches could leave the denomination through the end of 2023 “for reasons of conscience regarding a change in the requirements and provisions of the Book of Discipline related to the practice of homosexuality or the ordination or marriage of self-avowed practicing homosexuals as resolved and adopted by the 2019 General Conference, or the actions or inactions of its annual conference related to these issues which follow.” 

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The vote to allow the 261 Georgia churches to disaffiliate occurred on Saturday (four requests were also rejected). A press release from the NGUMC called it a “solemn day.”

“I realized how sad this time is for so many, including myself,” said the conference’s episcopal leader, Bishop Robin Dease, according to The Atlanta Journal-Constitution. “I just hate that those who are leaving us, I will not have the opportunity to meet or to be with.”

The release explained that the churches will officially disaffiliate on November 30 but will then have 30 more days to fulfill financial and other obligations. It said new churches are expected to join the conference and that 440 Georgia member churches “will continue fulfilling the mission of the United Methodist church in our communities and beyond.”

According to the United Methodist News Service, 7,286 congregations (more than one in five) across the country have been approved to disaffiliate from the denomination since the 2019 announcement that allowed them to do so. Over 5000 of those disaffiliations have taken place in 2023.

Conservatives who have left the denomination have founded the Global Methodist Church, which believes that “human sexuality is a gift of God that is to be affirmed as it is exercised within the legal and spiritual covenant of a loving and monogamous marriage between one man and one woman.”