The United Methodist Church, long a mainstay of the American religious scene, is beginning to fracture
Rev. Chris Morgan leads his congregation at Christ United Methodist Church in Bethel Park Sunday, Oct. 9, 2022. The church has a diverse congregation with most leaning toward the center. In regional gatherings across the country this year, United Methodists approved requests of about 300 congregations to quit the denomination primarily over debates over sexuality and theology.
Those departing are still a fraction of the estimated 30,000 congregations in the United States alone, with nearly 13,000 more abroad, according to recent UMC statistics. A proposal to amicably divide the denomination and its assets, unveiled in early 2020, has lost its once-broad support after years of pandemic-related delays to the legislative General Conference, whose vote was needed to ratify it.New York Bishop Thomas Bickerton, president of the Council of Bishops, issued a statement in August denouncing “a constant barrage of negative rhetoric that is filled with falsehood and inaccuracies” by breakaway groups.
A few miles away in Bethel Park, another Pittsburgh suburb, Christ United Methodist Church remains committed to the denomination. "We live in a world of division. Just look at our political front,” said Bishop David Graves, who oversees the South Georgia and Alabama-West Florida conferences. Both conferences have dozens of congregations moving to the exits, though the large majority are staying so far.
Bishop Karen Oliveto of the UMC’s Mountain Sky region — who in 2016 became the UMC’s first openly lesbian bishop — said via email it is “extremely wounding to LGBTQ persons that our very personhood is being used as a wedge to disrupt unity in the church.” She expressed hope that UMC churches"will be safe places for all people, regardless of sexual orientation or gender identity.”
American membership has declined to about 6.5 million, from a peak of 11 million in the 1960s. Overseas membership soared to match or exceed that of the U.S., fueled mostly by growth and mergers in Africa.
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