It also is the provision the South Carolina Conference is asking its churches to follow to disaffiliate from the denomination as part of its “Local Church Discernment Process,” which allows the annual conference to close a church and transfer its assets to a new entity.
The conference’s reasoning, according to its website, is that no local churches in South Carolina qualify for the disaffiliation plan, “since they do not profess to disagree with the human sexuality language in the Book of Discipline or how the South Carolina Conference has interpreted it.”
The Book of Discipline currently states that “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching” and that “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” cannot be ordained as ministers, appointed to serve or be married in the church — the same view shared by many congregations leaving the United Methodist Church.
The Protocol of Grace and Reconciliation Through Separation that was proposed in 2020 would have created a new “traditionalist” denomination and allowed the remaining United Methodist Church to vote to change that language, but it was abandoned as the 2020 General Conference was delayed three times for pandemic-related reasons.
At its annual conference meeting earlier this month, the South Carolina Conference approved disaffiliation requests by 113 churches under that previous provision outlined in Paragraph 2549.
By Declaration
Then there’s St. Andrew Methodist Church in Plano, Texas.
Last fall, St. Andrew, the second-largest congregation in the North Texas Conference and the seventh largest in the state, simply declared it was leaving the United Methodist Church. That decision was made by the church’s executive council and leadership.
“The process by which St. Andrew made this decision is unique in the history of our Wesleyan tradition, which requires congregational votes on major decisions,” then-Bishop Michael McKee told United Methodist News in October.
It didn’t work. The disaffiliation plan requires a two-thirds vote from church members present at a specially called church conference in order for it to walk away with its property and assets. The church wound up holding such a vote in February — with 98.6% of those voting choosing to leave the denomination, 859 to 12 — and making the necessary payments under that plan.
Meanwhile, another Texas church was more successful in declaring its departure. In July 2021, members of First United Methodist Church of Blue Ridge, now Christ United Church, voted to leave the denomination and adopt amended articles of incorporation and bylaws under Texas law.
The North Texas Conference sued Christ United, but no injunction was ever issued, and the terms of the settlement are confidential. Both the church’s lawyer, Carol Wolfram, and the North Texas Conference declined to share specifics about the settlement.
But, Wolfram said, “The North Texas Conference was taking the position that (Christ United) needed permission from them to disaffiliate, that they did not have the right under Texas law to disaffiliate without the blessing of the Methodist Church.”
