The current senior minister of Highland Park United Methodist Church and his two immediate predecessors have sent a message to congregants about why they should vote to leave The United Methodist Church. And the three senior ministers directly counter the…
Prominent members weigh in on HPUMC vote
As the nation’s wealthiest United Methodist church readies to vote on a proposed split with its denomination, some church members are weighing in publicly with their opinions. Members of Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas will vote this coming…
Dallas megachurch to vote on leaving UMC
Leaders of Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dallas have called for a rapid vote on whether to leave The United Methodist Church. That vote will take place on Sunday, Oct. 25 — just two weeks after a town hall…
Maryland appeals court says 37 churches must pay up to leave UMC
Thirty-seven Maryland churches sought to leave The United Methodist Church and take their properties with them, but the Appellate Court of Maryland has said the churches must pay to leave. On Oct. 5, the state appellate court affirmed a lower…
United Methodism two years after 25% of churches disaffiliated
The United Methodist Church’s experience with the disaffiliations of a number of its congregations has received widespread coverage in church media and in some secular media outlets. Because the polity of the UMC differs from that of many other denominations,…
Alabama judge isn’t buying UMC’s ‘trust clause’ claims
An Alabama judge has dealt an unusual blow to one of the strongest arguments The United Methodist Church has made to keep churches from defecting. Houston County Circuit Judge Christopher K. Richardson ruled March 25 that the UMC does not…
UMC bishop back in Zimbabwe after visa detention in Nigeria
United Methodist Bishop Eben K. Nhiwatiwa was safely home in Zimbabwe Aug. 27 after being detained in Nigeria on a visa complaint while visiting to set up the election of a new bishop. The incident marks the latest encounter in…
United Methodists will decide realigning church’s structure, authority in 2024
For the first time in half a century, acceptance of sexual minorities isn’t likely to be the major issue coming before The United Methodist Church’s worldwide legislative assembly next spring. Instead, the looming political fight appears to be how to…
United Methodist bishops called to craft ‘narrative of hope’ amid harsh break-up realities
The president of the United Methodist Council of Bishops called his sibling episcopal leaders to “craft a narrative of hope” in the coming months before the 12-million-member worldwide denomination gathers next spring for its first legislative assembly since the UMC…
Clearer picture emerging of UMC’s future
Even before its official year of splintering is completed, United Methodists are carving out a clearer identity for the denomination’s future and a clearer picture is emerging of who has stayed and who has left, about clergy health and the…
Grieving and glimmers of hope mark United Methodist breakup status
When tiny but energetic Bartlett United Methodist Church in central Texas began to talk about the denomination’s split, member Tami Baker said she felt “a sense of dread and then grief as talk of the pending split increased.” Further into…
A Baptist’s guide to disaffiliation in other Christian traditions
While the Southern Baptist Convention — the nation’s largest non-Catholic denomination — has been in the news lately for removing churches from its fellowship, The United Methodist Church — the nation’s second-largest non-Catholic denomination — keeps making headlines as churches…