Almost 200 western NC Methodist churches leaving the denomination over LGBTQ+ issues

A liturgical union irrevocably broken ends in divorce on Saturday when almost 200 United Methodist churches across western North Carolina are expected to leave the denomination.

The “disaffiliations” by the churches in question — including two from Charlotte — are part of a larger rupture throughout the Christian world over the ordination, marriage and spiritual standing of LGBTQ+ believers.

On Saturday, delegates from the 956 churches of the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, meeting virtually, are expected to approve the departures of 192 congregations. Those leaving support the denomination’s current restrictive stands on sexuality, which include bans on both same-sex marriage and the ordination of practicing gays and lesbians.

More conservative conference churches are expected to disaffiliate before the year-end deadline. Those departures will be considered during a special meeting in November. Aimee Yeager, director of communications for the Western Conference, told The Charlotte Observer on Wednesday that denominational leaders expect a smaller number of defections in the fall.

Once disaffiliated, a congregation can no longer be part of the United Methodist Church. Some have become independent churches. Others have joined more conservative alliances, including the Global Methodist Church founded in 2022.

Congregations more open to the inclusion of the LGBTQ+ community throughout the Methodist ranks are staying put, while anticipating significant changes to the denomination’s restrictive rules on sexuality.

“While we grieve the disaffiliations, we remain United Methodist as we change the harmful language we’ve suffered under too long, and to honor our highest commitment: to welcome and bless all people,” said James Howell, senior pastor at Myers Park United Methodist Church in Charlotte.

The departing congregations on Saturday’s agenda make up about 15% of the Western Conference’s total membership of almost 240,000. They join 41 other churches who broke away in 2020-22. The conference, headquartered in Huntersville, serves Methodists in 44 counties, including throughout the Charlotte area.

The United Methodist Church has almost 8 million members worldwide, making it the second largest Protestant denomination behind the Southern Baptists.

According to Religion News Service, almost a third of North Carolina’s Methodists had disaffiliated as of January, one of the highest exodus rates in the country. In Texas, the rift is larger, claiming half of that state’s congregations.

Most of the departing western N.C. churches come from smaller towns, suburban areas or rural communities, all generally believed to be more politically, socially and spiritually conservative. Iredell County is home to more than a dozen of the break-away congregations, including seven from Statesville.

“We grieve to see any church leave, especially as we believe that we all share the core mission of bringing people into the life of Christ, his love for us and his teaching that we love one another,” Western Conference Bishop Ken Carter said in a prepared statement preceding Saturday’s vote.

“Nevertheless, the issue of human sexuality has become an irreconcilable difference among us.”

One of those departing churches is Oak Grove United Methodist, on Old Statesville Road in Charlotte. Lay leader Karen Reynolds said the estimated 75 active members there voted by an almost 9-to-1 margin in January to break away. Reynolds said the issue is the continued ordination of practicing gays and lesbians to ministerial positions, including bishop, despite denominational rules to the contrary.

The Methodists’ Book of Discipline decrees that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.”

While the denomination’s rule book allows the ordination of celibate gays, “practicing homosexuals are not to be certified as candidates, ordained as ministers, or appointed to serve the United Methodist Church.”

The book also bans Methodist ministers from performing same-sex marriages, though it adds: “We implore families and churches not to reject or condemn lesbian and gay members and friends. We commit ourselves to be in ministry for and with all persons.”

Nonetheless, the denomination continues to be whipsawed by the issue of sexuality.

At its 2016 general conference, the church’s highest legislative body, more than 100 clergy came out as gay, and later that year, the denomination ordained its first open lesbian as a bishop.

Yet three years later, delegates to a special international conference of church members voted to keep the Book of Discipline’s restrictive policies and language on sexuality intact.

While other Methodist congregations have advocated for a broader role for the LGBTQ+ community, Reynolds described Oak Grove as an “old-school church” that takes the Book of Discipline at its word.

“That’s what we thought it was there for,” she said.

Moore’s Chapel United Methodist, off Sam Wilson Road near the airport, is also on the disaffiliation list. Acting pastor Jeffery Wiggins did not respond to a Tuesday email and phone call from The Charlotte Observer seeking comment.

Years of Methodist infighting

The split among the Methodists over sexuality has been building for years, as it earlier had fractured the Episcopal, Lutheran and Presbyterian denominations.

Under an agreement reached in 2019, Methodist churches have until Dec. 31 to disaffiliate and keep their property in return for paying two years of apportionments and pension liabilities.

Three dozen N.C. churches sued the Western Conference in November to force an immediate departure without making the payments. The case was thrown out of court in March, with the judge ruling that the complaint violated the separation of church and state. An appeal is expected.

A major plaintiff in that case was Good Shepherd United Methodist in Steele Creek, one of Charlotte’s largest Methodist congregations. While Good Shepherd joined the suit calling for immediate separation, it does not appear on the list of disaffiliating churches to be voted upon on Saturday.

Yeager said under United Methodist rules, Good Shepherd will not be able to disaffiliate as long as it remains part of the lawsuit. Good Shepherd’s pastor, the Rev. Talbot Davis, did not respond to an Observer phone call Tuesday seeking comment.

In 2024, the United Methodist Church will hold its next worldwide general conference in uptown Charlotte.

The Book of Discipline’s language on sexuality is likely to be on the agenda.