Some churches already have left the United Methodist Church, following a process to disaffiliate from their regional annual conferences that was approved by a 2019 special session of the General Conference.
In June, the North Georgia Conference ratified the disaffiliation of 70 of its churches. More than 100 churches in Florida and 38 in North Carolina are suing United Methodist regional bodies in coordination with the National Center for Life and Liberty as they vie for immediate departure.
Some departing churches are joining the Global Methodist Church. Others have chosen to remain independent.
The North Georgia Conference isn’t the first to express concern about misinformation.
In his first official address as president of the United Methodist Church’s Council of Bishops, this summer, Bishop Thomas Bickerton of the New York Annual Conference called out conservative groups for divisive rhetoric and “accusations and statements that are just not true.”
Bickerton accused the Global Methodist Church and the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a network of theologically conservative United Methodists, of winning new churches to their movement through fear.
“I want to urge you to stop this tactic of trying to coerce people to join your effort by making them afraid of or angry with the very church that gave them life,” Bickerton said at the time.
“I would invite you, as I have for the past two years, into a collaborative, grace-filled engagement in how God might work in the midst of our disagreements and rise above the tactics that look more like a primary race for public office then a compelling race to give salvation in all and with all.”
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This article originally appeared on ReligionNews.com.
, the North Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church announced a "pause" on disaffiliations in the region until the United Methodist Church's global decision-making body, the General Conference, meets in 2024.){kind=link}