Over 30 churches based in North Carolina, United States, have said that they are no longer interested in being a part of the United Methodist Church (UMC). They are also threatening legal action because the process of disaffiliation is not just to them.
Earlier in the month, over 40 churches in the Western North Carolina Conference were supervising the pre-suit negotiation requests. This information was disclosed by a theologically conservative network, The Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA).
The UMC is known as the second-largest Protestant denomination in the world.
Amid the ongoing argument over the UMC’s longstanding opposition to same-sex marriage and homosexuality, many of its members have left the denomination.
WCA also revealed that the Western North Carolina Conference sent a legal demand to the denomination’s leadership in a bid to provide an exit for the churches that desire to leave the denomination.
Bishop Ken Carter is the head of the UMC Western North Carolina Conference. Also, he supervises the Florida Annual Conference (FAC).
It will be recalled that in May 2022, a lawsuit was filed by 106 churches against the UMC regional body. It claimed that the process to leave the denomination was unfair to them.
WCA Florida President, Jeremy Rebman, was quoted as saying that the news of some members leaving the denomination is quite saddening.
Rebman added, "Members in the churches in both conferences, under the helm of Bishop Carter, had hoped and prayed that Bishop Carter would see his way to negotiate a fair and equitable exit for traditional churches.”
According to Rebman, Carter had previously signed the "Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation." This document plan was announced in January 2020. If it is enacted, it would mean that the conservative UMC members would have $25 million to form their own Methodist denomination.
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