After a four-year COVID-19 delay, and the departure of about 25% of its U.S. churches, the United Methodist Church is meeting again and the issue of human sexuality is back on the agenda.
This issue of A Public Witness tracks which members of Congress are no longer part of the United Methodist Church to consider what that reveals about Methodist life as well as religion and politics more broadly.
The same area of the country that tends to be the most politically conservative and Republican-leaning was where most United Methodist churches voted to leave the denomination.
Many departing congregations have joined the more conservative Global Methodist Church, with others joining smaller denominations, going independent, or still considering their options.
The meeting would focus on re-establishing connection within the United Methodist Church after years of strife over the ordination and marriage of its LGBTQ members.
United Methodist bishops from across the globe are meeting this week for the first time in person since the COVID-19 pandemic.
The United Methodist Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, ruled again on the question of leaving the denomination in a decision released last week as the church goes through a slow-moving split over the ordination and marriage of its LGBTQ members.
Nearly four years ago, the United Methodist Church approved an exit plan for churches wishing to break away from the global denomination over differing beliefs about sexuality, setting in motion what many believed would be a modern-day schism. Since then, a new analysis has found,