Tag: United Methodist Church

United Methodist Officially Lifts Ban on LGBTQ Members Joining Its Clergy

Just the News
LGBTQ members at United Methodist Church congregation

The delegates are also expected to vote on whether to replace its “Social Principles” document with one that changes the definition of marriage from being between a man and a woman to a union between “two people of faith.” It would also remove a line in the document that considers the practice of homosexuality “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

United Methodist delegates voted to remove a ban on members of the LGBTQ community serving as clergy members on Wednesday, ending decades of controversy around the issue.

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Former United Methodist Members Form New Churches as Disaffiliation Rule Nears Expiration

Minnesota Sun Staff

An official rule permitting congregations to part ways with the United Methodist Church (UMC) while retaining church property is about to expire, but the effects of the split are far from over.

Churches in Alabama continue to face divisions even after failing to leave the denomination under the rule. Some congregants who were members of UMC churches left to form their own independent churches or joined other Methodist denominations like the Global Methodist Church (GMC).

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Nearly 200 North Alabama Churches Leave United Methodist Church over Disputes Between Traditional Christians, Progressives

Minnesota Sun Staff

Nearly 200 Alabama churches officially seceded from the United Methodist Church (UMC) last weekend following years of conflict over social and theological issues.

Members of the UMC’s North Alabama Conference (NAC) approved the decision to leave at their meeting on Saturday at the Birmingham Jefferson Convention Center (BJCC). 

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Seventy Georgia Churches Split from Methodist Church over LGBTQ Stance

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Last week, at least 70 churches in the state of Georgia announced their intentions to split from the United Methodist Church (UMC) over the church’s stance on the LGBTQ community.

Fox News reports that the split marks one of the biggest fractures in recent memory for the UMC, which is the third-largest Protestant denomination in the country. Last Thursday, the North Georgia Conference voted to allow the churches in question to disaffiliate from the broader church. The departing churches will be following the disaffiliation process that was first laid out in 2019 by the UMC’s General Conference, rules that are in effect until the next conference in 2023.

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United Methodist Delegates Reject Recognizing Gay Marriage

Minnesota Sun Staff

The United Methodist Church, America’s second-largest Protestant denomination, faces a likely surge in defections and acts of defiance after delegates at a crucial conference voted Tuesday to strengthen the faith’s bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBT clergy. Emotions were high throughout the third and final day of the…

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