‘Turning a corner today’: 142 Mississippi churches leave UMC over homosexuality debate
The United Methodist Church has approved the disaffiliation of 142 Mississippi congregations, joining more than 7,000 churches that have left the mainline Protestant denomination since 2019.
At a called session held at Anderson United Methodist Church of Jackson on Saturday, the UMC Mississippi Conference approved the disaffiliations of 142 churches in the state.
The voting was focused on the district level, with eight different ballots focusing on different areas within the UMC Mississippi Conference. The ballots were centered on the Brookhaven and East Jackson Districts, the East Jackson and Greenwood Districts, the Greenwood and Hattiesburg Districts, the Hattiesburg and Meridian Districts, the Meridian and New Albany Districts, the New Albany and Seashore Districts, the Senatobia and Starkville Districts, and the Starkville, Tupelo and West Jackson Districts.
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One of the congregations approved for disaffiliation was Christ United Methodist Church of Jackson, reportedly the largest UMC congregation in the state, whose members voted 717-112 in October to leave the denomination.
Following a performance by the Anderson UMC choir, Mississippi Bishop Sharma Lewis said the disaffiliation votes had been approved, and that the vote tallies for the individual churches would be made available later.
“I don’t want you to clap,” said Lewis after announcing the result, with those gathered remaining silent. “This is still sensitive and painful. But we are turning a corner today.”
In June, the Mississippi Conference voted to approve the disaffiliation decisions of 189 churches, which at the time represented about one-fifth of the regional body’s member congregations.
Over the past few decades, the UMC has experienced a divisive debate on whether to allow the blessing of same-sex unions and the ordination of clergy in romantic same-sex relationships.
Although efforts to change the rules at General Conference have always failed, progressives within the denomination have often refused to enforce or follow the rules, leading many conservatives to seek leaving the UMC.
In 2019, at a special session of General Conference, delegates voted to add Paragraph 2553 to the UMC Book of Discipline. The measure creates a temporary process for congregations to disaffiliate from the UMC over the homosexuality debate. The provisions of Paragraph 2553 will expire at the end of the year.
The number of congregations that have left under Paragraph 2553 since 2019 passed the 7,000 mark in November, with more than 5,000 churches having disaffiliated this year alone.
Of the congregations that have left, over 3,000 opted to affiliate with the Global Methodist Church, a recently launched theologically conservative alternative to the UMC.
