More United Methodist churches leave denomination; North Alabama Conference looks forward
Many United Methodist churches across the country have disaffiliated from the denomination as the culmination of a longtime battle over some congregations’ stances on same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBT clergy, which conservatives say violate the UMC Book of Discipline.
In December, 198 Alabama congregations (roughly two-thirds of the total number) filed official notices of disaffiliation, making plans to join other denominations or become independent. Another 132, including large UMC congregations in Gardendale, Helena, Trussville and Vernon, disaffiliated via a Zoom call on May 11, conducted by Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett of the UMC’s North Alabama Conference.
The latest departures included 22 churches from the Mountain Lakes District, which is comprised of Etowah, Cherokee, DeKalb and Marshall counties, and a few churches in neighboring counties. Another 57 churches in the district disaffiliated in December, for a total of 79.
Across the area, five more churches in both Etowah and Blount counties, four in Cherokee, three in Marshall, two each in DeKalb and St. Clair and one in Cullman have disaffiliated. They are Alabama City, Asbury, Bethlehem, Bogan Chapel, Fairview, Fairview (Albertville), Forrest Home, Hebron, Joppa, Mentone, Mount High, Moody (The Gathering Place), New Hope (Cedar Bluff), New Oregon, Pine Grove (Blount), Pleasant Hill, Rock Springs, Shiloh/Allgood, Steele, Trinity (Gadsden), Valley Head and Walnut Grove.
The North Alabama Conference, which covers the upper half of the state from Montgomery to the Tennessee line and the Mississippi state line westward to the Georgia border, has lost more than half of its membership since December, with only 308 churches remaining on its roster.
However, the Rev. Sherrie Reynolds, Southwest District supervisor and soon to be pastor of Gadsden’s First UMC, is focusing on the impact its congregations have made for Jesus Christ.
“We celebrate that together we welcomed 6,000 children to ongoing programs and Vacation Bible Schools,” Reynolds said in an email about the past year, “discipled almost 4,000 youth, regularly gathered 12,000 adults in small groups to grow in faith together, sent out almost 15,000 individuals to serve others in our communities and as part of Volunteers in Mission teams, and so much more.”
And Wallace-Padgett has announced plans to start new churches in many of the places where congregations are disaffiliating.
She said during the May 11 Zoom call that while the conference will miss the churches that left, “At the same time, we rejoice at the 300-plus churches that are continuing on the journey as United Methodists.”
Many of the Methodist churches that have left or are planning to do so have joined the Global Methodist Church (Rainbow City First, which disaffiliated in December, is one) or the Free Methodist Church, new denominations formed for conservative congregations. Others have joined another conservative group, switched to another denomination or decided to remain independent.
This article originally appeared on The Gadsden Times: More disaffiliations from UMC in Alabama
