White’s Chapel’s vote was held in accordance with the disaffiliation plan approved by a special session of the United Methodist Church’s national General Conference in 2019, along with legislation called the Traditional Plan, which strengthened the denomination’s language barring the ordination and marriage of LGBTQ United Methodists.
Though many expected LGBTQ United Methodists and their allies to exit the denomination as a result, they vowed to remain and resist. Instead, mostly conservative Methodists are leaving the UMC.
The disaffiliation plan allows church members to vote to leave the denomination through the end of 2023. The resolution must be approved by the church’s annual conference, and the church must pay two years of apportionments and pension liabilities, but it can retain ownership of its buildings and land.
Annual conferences may add their own requirements for disaffiliation, and groups like the Wesleyan Covenant Association have argued that some annual conferences are adding “onerous and punitive requirements” for disaffiliation to prevent churches from leaving.
The Central Texas Annual Conference could not immediately be reached to discuss what it requires from departing congregations.
White’s Chapel says this was the right time for them financially to pay out. The church’s primary concern, its co-pastor McKellar said, was to move forward with its eyes on its religious mission, without the trying politics of either the UMC or its politically minded neighbors.
“There are a lot of churches in our community that endorse candidates,” said McKellar. “They get involved in these issues. We are not that. We want to be that, that middle place, united around Jesus.”
This article originally appeared here.
