United Methodists

“Under the new restructuring plan, called ‘regionalization,’ the denomination’s nine regions will be equal partners with greater freedom to tailor church life to their own customs and traditions.” - RNS

“Violent clashes have broken out between groups of Methodists in Nigeria and Liberia as a divide over the ordination of LGBTQ clergy and same-sex marriage has split the United Methodist Church.” - RNS

“To be a member of the Gideons, one must be an adult man and conform to a set of spiritual beliefs that are entirely uncontroversial for most Biblical Christians. Among these requisites is the commitment to ‘the Biblical standard of marriage being between one biological man and one biological woman.’” - Juicy Ecumenism

“The liberal Methodists of North America have now virtually guaranteed their denomination’s extinction. Conservative Methodists around the world were and still are the lifeblood of the tradition….In this, they represent the larger trend in Mainline Protestant churches.” - Breakpoint

“United Methodist delegates are heading into the homestretch of their first legislative gathering in five years — one that appears on track to make historic changes in lifting their church’s longstanding bans on same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ clergy.” - AP

“This General Conference will liberalize United Methodism’s teachings on marriage and sex….over 7660 traditionalist churches, including up to 1.5 million members, exited the denomination under a temporary policy allowing departure with property.” - Juicy Ecumenism

“There will be yet another explosion next May, when United Methodism’s governing General Conference meets for the first time since 2019. With so many traditionalists gone, the convention will likely delete its current bans on same-sex rites and sex outside of male-female marriage.” - World

“while most of those churches have followed the disaffiliation plan outlined by the United Methodist Church’s General Conference, other congregations and annual conferences have tried different ways to leave” - RNS

“It didn’t work, he said, because some church leaders and regional conferences have taken action to oppose the denomination’s official stance barring LGBT members from ordination and marriage.” - CToday

“An analysis of departing churches suggests the country’s second-largest Protestant denomination will be weakened, but it is unlikely to break.” - RNS