Nearly 200 United Methodist churches in Georgia filed a lawsuit last week against their own denomination’s regional body after they were temporarily halted from disaffiliating, marking another escalation in tensions among mainline Protestants over issues of sexuality and church authority.
The lawsuit filed by 186 Methodist churches in the UMC North Georgia Conference is the latest step in the contentious schism fracturing the second-largest Protestant denomination in the U.S. in recent years as generally conservative local congregations seek to break away from the liberal mainline denomination, according to UM News.
Leaders of the conference acted “wrongfully, in bad faith, and … beyond the limits of their power” to deny the churches “the right to vote on withdrawal from the UMC with their property intact,” according to the lawsuit.
The Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA) of North Georgia, which advocates for such breakaway congregations, issued a statement expressing a “heavy heart” in the wake of the lawsuit. “We recognize that taking legal action against the UMC is a drastic step,” they said. “Be assured that every possible option has been explored to avoid this moment.”
LAWYER REPRESENTING METHODIST CHURCHES TRYING TO LEAVE SAYS CONTENTIOUS SPLIT IS ABOUT ‘POWER’ AND ‘MONEY’
More than 2,000 U.S. churches have disaffiliated from the UMC since 2019, when the UMC General Conference voted 438-384 to uphold the church’s ban on ordaining LGBTQ clergy and officiating at or hosting same-sex marriages.
Many of the conservative congregations that have sought to break off claim the vote was simply disregarded by liberal UMC leaders who chose to commission gay clergy and officiate same-sex weddings anyway, according traditionalist members of the Methodist clergy who spoke to Fox News Digital last June.
UNITED METHODIST SPLIT GROWS MORE CONTENTIOUS AS GEORGIA CONFERENCE BLOCKS CONSERVATIVE CHURCHES FROM EXITING
The lawsuit comes months after the North Georgia…
Read the full article here
