The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Church members have already held vote to disaffiliate.
The South Georgia Conference of the United Methodist Church will vote Sunday to let 193 churches leave the denomination.
Those churc hes have already held votes within their congregation to disaffiliate. The next step is for the vote to be ratified during a special meeting, which will be livestreamed on the conference website sgaumc.org.
“Sunday will be a day of great sadness in the life of the South Georgia Annual Conference,” Bishop David Graves said in a statement. “We will grieve in saying farewell to the 193 churches disaffiliating from The United Methodist Church and wish them the best in ministry.”
He offered prayers to those leaving and as they “navigate ministry in a new season. I especially want to express my appreciation for the 274 churches who have chosen to remain United Methodist and those who heard my call to refrain from holding discussions around leaving the denomination until we have more information.”
The situation in South Georgia is in sharp contrast to happenings in its northern counterpart.
Earlier this year, roughly 185 churches sued the North Georgia Conference, the board of trustees, its cur- rent and former bishop, among others over the right to vote on the issue of disaffiliation.
At issue was a “pause” from the North Georgia Conference that temporarily halted requests to leave, citing “factually incorrect and defamatory” information circulating about the process for disaffiliation.
The judge ruled that the churches should be allowed to continue the process and be able to vote.
Across the nation, so far this year hundreds of churches have left the denomination, most of them traditional, many over differ- ences in authority of Scripture, and cultural issues such as abortion , same sex marriage and fears that the denomination will become too progressive.
According to the United Methodist News Service, once South Georgia takes a vote on Sunday and if all 193 are ratified, there will be 3,549 — or 11.6% — of con- gregations across the entire denomination who have completed the required steps disaffiliated under paragraph 2553 since 2019.
The issues of the ordi- nation of non-celibate gay clergy and same sex mar
riage, for instance, have been brewing for decades.
“The fracturing we’re seeing in broader American society, in general, is also reflected in the divisions in American denominations,” said Bryan J. Whitfield, chairman of the Columbus Roberts Department of Religion at Mercer University.
It’s a long-term trend in American Christianity, he said.
The “brokenness” today in society and the church runs parallel to what happened years ago over the issue of slavery, he said.
“In the 20th and 21st century the two issues have been the role of women in leadership and the LGBTQ issue of inclusion for some denominations. The Methodists are not splintering over the issue of women. ... I will say there are certainly other issues as well, but that’s the LGBTQ issue that around which there has not been any closure.”
Paragraph 2553, added in 2019, allows churches to leave — and keep their property — if they do so by the end 2023 and agree to compensate the denomination for the value of their assets.
Even with the loss, Graves said he had hope for the future of the conference.
“While we may be smaller, numbers do tell the full story or define our abil- ity to bear witness to the Good News of Jesus Christ. I we will be stronger as we focus on reaching new people with the gospel message.”
There is not expected to be any opposition to the disaffiliations, said Kelly Rober- son, director of communi- cations for the conference.
After those churches leave, South Georgia Conference of United Methodist Church will be left with 274 churches. The conference, based in Macon, covers an area south of Columbus, Macon and Waynesboro.
Most of those churches are in rural areas. At the of 2022, membership stood at more than 76,000.
According to the South Georgia Conference, steps are already being taken to start new congregations and ministries in areas where current United Methodist congregations are leaving.