Posted on 08/22/2022 9:59:01 AM PDT by SeekAndFind
More than 30 congregations based in North Carolina have threatened legal action so they can leave the United Methodist Church, claiming that the disaffiliation process is unfair to them.
The Wesleyan Covenant Association, a theologically conservative network, announced earlier this month that over 40 churches in the Western North Carolina Conference are overseeing "pre-suit negotiation requests."
The announcement comes as scores of theologically conservative congregations nationwide have left the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States amid ongoing debate over the UMC's longstanding opposition to homosexuality and same-sex marriage.
According to WCA, the Western North Carolina Conference "sent a legal demand to the United Methodist leadership in an effort to provide an exit for their churches wanting to leave the United Methodist denomination."
The head of the UMC Western North Carolina Conference is Bishop Ken Carter, who also oversees the Florida Annual Conference. In May, 106 churches in the Florida Annual Conference filed a lawsuit against the UMC regional body, claiming that the disaffiliation process placed unfair demands on those seeking to leave.
WCA Florida President Jeremy Rebman was quoted in the announcement saying that it's "another sad day for the United Methodist denomination."
"Members in the churches in both conferences, under the helm of Bishop Carter, had hoped and prayed that Bishop Carter would see his way … to negotiate a fair and equitable exit for traditional churches," Rebman stated.
Rebman claimed that Carter had previously signed the "Protocol of Reconciliation and Grace through Separation," a plan announced in January 2020 that, if enacted, would have given $25 million to conservative UMC members to form their own Methodist denomination.
Carter released a letter to the Western North Carolina Conference, noting that he became aware of 31 churches seeking to leave the regional body.
Carter said he is "deeply grieved by this action" and argued that the conference already provides a "gracious exit" for congregations that want to disaffiliate from the UMC.
"We have been trying to engage these churches in that process, but they have refused to follow that approved disaffiliation path," wrote Carter.
"We ask that, despite their haste, these groups seeking to break away live up to the responsibilities established by the General Conference in 2019, and that they not cause pain, damage, or disparage other United Methodist churches, other members in their churches, or other pastors, or the Conference."
Carter warned that "an abrupt separation creates significant issues that could damage benefits and pensions for retired pastors and their spouses who devoted their lives to service."
"In all this, our overarching goal is to move through this process in a spirit where we can support, bless and love each other," he added. "A tenet of our faith is that we embrace a Church built in loving relationships rather than uniformity in thought and action."
In May, the Global Methodist Church, a conservative alternative to the UMC, was officially launched. Since then, several UMC congregations have joined the new denomination.
GMC organizers initially intended to wait until the next UMC General Conference to depart, expecting the denomination to pass the Protocol.
But when General Conference organizers announced that the gathering would be delayed until 2024, the GMC leaders went ahead and launched the new denomination.
Sure you can leave, you just can’t take anything with you.
They are leaving because they don’t to be a part of the fag church.
Demand
Allow
Really good Church words.
Sorry Folks, I am chuckling.
“Sure you can leave, you just can’t take anything with you.”
exactly .... all your stuff be our stuff and ya’ll are kicked to the curb with nothing ... NOTHING ... we’ll then let your church buildings rot, then be torn down and sold to make way for yet another strip mall of bars, liquor stores and pot shops ...
Lets lose 40+ Churches so we can legitimize fagotry.
Sick
Just $21 million, give or take.
They accept the gays, disabled kids not so much. I left because of how my daughter was treated. We’re doing well at an Evangelical Presbyterian Church.
Theologic liberalism is not n on-ramp to the Christian Faith; it is an off-ramp.
(David Young, ‘A Grand Illusion: How Progressive Christianity Undermine Biblical Faith’)
Actually, that is precisely what they are suing to do - Leave the UMC and take/retain ownership of their property.
The UMC Book of Discipline has a provision which allows a church to leave, and, it has been successfully done in the past.
The Florida UMC Conference is being sued by 106 Florida UMC churches (full disclosure, I am a member of one of them) to be allowed to leave and retain their property.
We expect to be successful!
Homosexuals are not tolerated in our church; your daughter would be most welcome!
“Just $21 million, give or take.”
And your point would be?
I believe this makes it a clean sweep: the entire Protestant Mainline has now split into two or more fragments. Nice work, progressives.
Anything that the left gets control of, they ruin. Embracing fagotry is just a small part of their program.
The UMC already has - that is why we are leaving!
The REAL issue is, of course, MONEY!
Stay tuned!
Yes, the UMC is asking our church to pay them money if we leave. Not to mention, they retain most of the investments and other assets of the UMC.
Have you looked at current construction and land values?
I bet it’s a lot more than that.
Not a big fan of United Methodist Church after they convinced my Aunt to leave her estate to the church, then proceeded to send all her belongings to a landfill (including the family photos, that were all I wanted). That so-called church can rot in Hell.
Slow learners. The Methodists haven’t preached scripture since the War.
Some if it is similar to how companies that once had union contracts get hit, after reforming or shutting down, with the cost of unfunded pension liabilities. They want to keep these parishioners enrolled in funding retirement goodies.
They say that those departing are making the separation too sudden and causing financial hardship.
Conversely it can be said that the non-christian normalization and aggrandizement of homosexual behavior was TOO SUDDEN and should have considered the last 2,000 years of Christian belief — but perhaps I am being to sensible.
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