Thomasville FUMC votes to disaffiliate, new group forms

Feb. 14—THOMASVILLE- United Methodist churches all across the United States have been at war with themselves for the past year, as many vote to disaffiliate from the United Methodist name. Thomasville FUMC found themselves in the midst of this war, when they voted to disaffiliate on on Sunday, January 22, 2023 in a 303-87 vote.

According to South Georgia Conference Lay Leader, J. Knapp, homosexuality and appointment of LGBTQ individuals to the clergy is the popular perception for disaffiliation. However, he said that debate has been going on since the 1970's.

"What is happening today is not related to that," he said. "It is shrouded supposedly under that umbrella, but what is really going on... is that the United Methodist churches don't own their own property; it belongs to the annual conference."

Knapp went on to say that when the General Conference met in 2018, they had conversations about homosexuality and developed a disaffiliation process that would allow churches who could not stand by the Book of Discipline, which does not allow for same-sex marriage, to leave and take their physical property.

"Prior to that, you could leave and develop your own church, but the property still remained that of the annual conference," Knapp said. "What's happened is people in the local churches see this as an opportunity to regain control of their property and the other piece of that is a new denomination has been born."

The new denomination was developed in June 2022, and is now known as the Global Methodists.

The Global Methodists do not believe in homosexuality and are the members that decided to stay within the local church, following the disaffiliation.

"The Global Methodists formed and paint themselves as a traditional, conservative path forward," Knapp said. "They do not want to follow in the path of what a small minority of our churches on the west coast are doing."

Retired UMC Reverend, Leigh Ann Raynor explained that Knapp's perspective comes from the laity, but most members are terrified that when the Annual Conference takes place in 2024, the longstanding tradition of not marrying homosexuals will be overturned.

"This comes from a place of fear," she said. "They don't want a homosexual minister; they don't want two men or two women to be married in their church, so they're leaving."

According to Raynor, churches had until 2024 to vote to disaffiliate, but there is so much fear that churches, such as Thomasville FUMC, have already held their vote.

This early vote has left many longstanding church members feeling lost and without a home, prompting Raynor to come out of retirement and form the United Methodists of Thomasville.

The United Methodists of Thomasville are a group of disaffiliated individuals, whose sole goal is to follow the Book of Discipline.

"I don't know that every person who joins us believes in ordained homosexuals or marrying homosexuals, but what they do believe in is the United Methodist Church and there is no other United Methodist church in Thomasville," Raynor said.

The group currently meets at St. Thomas Episcopal Church at 9 a.m. in the Parrish Hall, before attending the 10 a.m. service at St. Thomas.

For their first gathering, Raynor and Knapp both said they expected approximately a dozen people, but 49 displaced UMC members showed up.

Although retired since 2017, Raynor said that if there were 49 people who wanted to remain United Methodist, she took a vow and could not desert them.

"I felt a real call to come out of retirement and help them organize," she said.

Raynor explained the United Methodists of Thomasville are still following the Book of Discipline, just as Thomasville UMC was, and she will not be changing her teachings until the Annual Conference says otherwise.

"That's why we are baffled about why the rush to disaffiliate from the church," she said.

Due to a smaller space, the United Methodists of Thomasville is not so much of a service as it a Sunday School and place for open dialogue.

"We are trying to take it from a lay perspective and come in and see groups like this flourish," Knapp said. "Our hope is that we will take this opportunity to revitalize our United Methodism here in South Georgia to be what John Wesley envisioned."

According to Knapp, the vision of Wesley was for the church to be lay-led, followed by the clergy.

"It's very important for me that the laity is in charge of the decisions to come," Raynor said. "Our name, our money, our meeting place, our outreach all should be decided by them."

For now though, Raynor said she is having to re-envision what church looks like, and no matter the number of people who attend the United Methodists of Thomasville, she will continue to serve and worship with them.

"Everyone is welcome," Raynor said. "We are grieving because we love that church and we are losing our place of worship. We are very cognizant that the church has caused a lot of unnecessary grief and harm over the years, but in this church, we welcome those people to come heal with us, because everyone in the LGBTQ community is warmly received."