“I never thought it would come to this,” said Lee Thigpen, a lifelong United Methodist. As many United Methodist churches have voted to disaffiliate, members who remained loyal to the denomination were left behind, looking for new church homes. ⛪️
Trussville First United Methodist Church voted on April 23 by a margin of 296 to 83 to disaffiliate. That’s 78 percent, above the two-thirds majority required to disaffiliate. Others that have voted to leave include Russellville First, Clay, Helena, Mentone, Taylorville in Tuscaloosa and The Gathering Place in Moody. On the Gulf Coast, disaffiliating churches include Gulf Shores and Orange Beach United Methodist churches.
But Mason wants to stay in the United Methodist Church. “The United Methodist Church has always been a part of my life,” he said. Yet the United Methodist Church Book of Discipline still contains language saying “the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching.” Tired of fighting on the issue, many conservatives are now leaving, using an opening agreed upon by the General Conference to allow churches to pay the supervising conference for their property, take it with them and leave the denomination.
In the North Alabama Conference, 198 of 638 churches disaffiliated in December. Since then, 135 more have voted to disaffiliate. Their departure is expected to be finalized on May 11. The United Methodist Church, founded from a merger of Methodist churches in 1968, has dropped from 10.6 million U.S. members in 1970 to about 6.2 million before the pandemic in 2020, reflecting a broader decline in attendance and membership across mainline Protestant denominations.have started in Oneonta and Albertville, where previous congregations disaffiliated.so far to replace disaffiliating churches.
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