Why did 261 congregations leave the North Georgia United Methodist Church? LGBTQ stance row explained

On Saturday, November 18, The North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church (NGUMC) said in a press release that its 2023 annual conference had approved the disaffiliation of its 261 congregations.

Although the conference did not mention the immediate reason behind the departure of these churches, it was reportedly caused by differences in doctrinal beliefs regarding LGBTQ+ rights and the presence of queer church members.

The NGUMC stated that a Special Called Session was held to ratify the decision of these 261 churches to disjoin the denomination of the United Methodist Church. Vice-chair of North Georgia Conference’s Board of Trustees, Reverend Carolyn Stephens, presented the motion on behalf of the board. The district superintendent for each of these congregations read the name of their churches while requesting the disaffiliation, and the lay leader from each district offered a prayer.

However, the NGUMC stated that the conference did not approve the departure requests of four churches — McEachern Memorial UMC, Powder Springs, Griffin First UMC, The Fountain UMC at Sugarloaf Campus, Duluth, and Trinity UMC, Rome (Georgia).

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261 churches split from the North Georgia Conference of UMC over LGBTQ+ rights ban

The United Methodist Church forbids the marriage between practicing and self-avowed homos*xuals or their ordination to the church. However, the disagreement spawned when several U.S. churches, as well as clergy members, defied the bans on LGBTQ+ rights.

The theological differences soon led to the decision of the 261 churches to break apart from the denomination. Many conservatives decided to leave the UMC amid growing defiance of the bans from the pro-LGBTQ+ congregations.

The move on Saturday by the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church left around 440 churches under the denomination. The decision can be called a follow-up of another similar move that took place in 2019 when the National United Methodist Church allowed extra time for thousands of congregations to separate from the faith before the end of that year. An LGBTQ+ issue caused it.

Many church leaders were discontented with a change made to the provisions and requirements of the Book of Discipline about the practice of gay marriages and the ordination of practicing homos*xuals.

Since the controversy first broke out four years ago, about 6,225 Methodist Churches and their 30,000 congregations throughout the United States were approved to disaffiliate from the denomination. The departure of the 261 North Georgia congregations constitutes more than 37% of the 700 churches that originally made up the conference.

Bishop Robin Dease, the North Georgia Conference’s leader, expressed her regret over the split:

“I realize how sad this time is for many, including myself. I just hate that those who are leaving us, I will not have the opportunity to meet or to be with.”

As per the press release by the NGUMC, the exit of these 261 churches will be put into effect at the end of 2023, and they will be barred from using the UMC brand in their new denominations and logos.

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