Twenty-three congregations in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church received permission to leave the organization Thursday, when delegates to the church’s annual business session voted to allow the departures, officials said.
Approval for the 23 “disaffiliating” congregations came as a single vote as delegates met at the Hilton Baltimore Inner Harbor.
The congregations said they were leaving how the UMC handles “the practice of homosexuality” and “the ordination and marriage of self-avowed practicing homosexuals,” a regional office news release stated.
The 23 congregations — including 222-year-old Oakdale Church in Olney, Maryland — will have to pay 12 months of “mission shares,” or donations to the district; a prorated share of unfunded pension obligations; and half the assessed value of the church’s property in order to exit. The terms were set at a 2019 special session of UMC delegates.
Among the congregations approved to leave is Highland United Methodist Church in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The church was one of 38 UMC churches that sued the Baltimore-Washington Conference in March, alleging that officials were demanding a “financial ransom” in order to leave.
The Washington Times contacted attorney David Gibbs, president and general counsel of the National Center for Life and Liberty, which represents the 38 congregations, to determine the lawsuit’s status and any continuing role for the Highland UMC congregation in the legal action.
The United Methodist Church’s “Book of Discipline” bans noncelibate gays from ministry and the blessing of same-sex marriage, but there is pressure within the denomination to change those policies. The departing congregations disagree with efforts to overturn those rules.
The UMC reported 6.5 million U.S. members in 2019, with another 6.4 million members overseas.
The churches in Maryland and West Virginia represent nearly 4% of the 603 congregations comprising the UMC region. Nationally, roughly 10% of United Methodist Church congregations have already left; dozens of others have either left without a vote by their regional business meetings or just abandoned their church property.
A chart from the church’s UM News service shows a total of 4,359 congregations have been approved to disaffiliate, approximately 14% of the denomination’s 30,543 U.S. congregations reported in 2019.
In a prayer referencing the departing congregations, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, who heads the Baltimore-Washington and the Peninsula-Delaware conferences, said: “May we go with the peace of the living Lord ringing in our ears. May we go in love, not acrimony; in faith not doubt; in hope, not resignation; may we go in joy, even in the midst of our despair, and may we go in peace to love and serve the Lord.”
John Lomperis, who directs the United Methodist Action program at the Institute on Religion & Democracy, said the conferences run by Bishop Easterling have erected “one of the most punitive” sets of hurdles departing churches have had to clear.
Asking congregations to pay half the value of their property reflects “incredible greed we’re seeing on the part of United Methodist officials which is something the scripture has lots of warning about,” he said.
Mr. Lomperis said the 2022 launch of the Global Methodist Church as a separate, more conservative organization, is a source of optimism.
“I really just don’t see much hope anymore anywhere within the UMC, but I do see a lot of hope in the new Global Methodist Church that is emerging that people have already paid a significant price to get into the [GMC], but say that they’re willing to prioritize faithfulness to God and loving ministry to all people above the comforts of what they’ve known,” he said.
Further votes on disaffiliation are expected in other regions through the rest of the year, with Dec. 31 being the deadline for congregations wishing to exit under the rules adopted in 2019.
• Mark A. Kellner can be reached at mkellner@washingtontimes.com.
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