>>If the orthodox churches hold firm next year, I wouldn’t be surprised to see the liberal churches breaking away. It will be interesting to see what the denominational leadership, who are more liberal, will eo.
The liberals always talk about breaking away if they don’t get their way, but after GC2012, it was the Conservatives who started talking about it and the liberals got scared. They knew that the majority of UM churches survive on the money of conservatives and that the rural and suburban churches pay most of the apportionments. An exodus of conservatives would doom the UMC.
So, the liberals started walking back the talk of a split once the the conservatives started agreeing that it would be best.
The libs will never split off. Their whole agenda is about making others bow to their will, so they will always stay. IMO, Methodists of good conscience should just leave and find a new church home. That’s what I did. Leave the UMC to wallow in its own Progressive filth.
The libs are not going to get their way any time soon the way the trends are going. I can see the liberal UMC churches eventually dying because members who are strongly in favor of homosexual marriage will likely go to the Presbyterian or Lutheran churches (which have similar beliefs) which support it.
I do, however, expect a lot of liberal churches to defy the Book of Discipline and do their own thing. Some already have with mixed consequences. If they decide on a wholesale basis to pursue disobedience, they’ll bring the situation to a head.