In Western Ohio, which includes all of the UM churches west of Columbus, 252 churches have left in the past two years, including 172 that made the decision in June.
“I am always saddened by any person or congregation believing they need to sever their relationship with the United Methodist Church. However, I honor their right to choose what they believe is the best path for them to serve Jesus Christ,” Bishop Gregory Palmer, the episcopal leader of the Western Ohio Conference, told the Dayton Daily News at the time.
“I bid the 172 churches that have departed our communion the best. My focus will continue to be on a vibrant future for the West Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church and its more than 700 churches. To the extent we focus on the mission God has given us, that future is assured,” he said.
Church law forbids the marriage or ordination of “self-avowed, practicing homosexuals,” but many conservatives have chosen to leave amid a growing defiance of those bans in many U.S. churches and conferences.
Many of the departing congregations are joining the Global Methodist Church, a denomination created last year by conservatives breaking from the UMC, while others are going independent or joining different denominations.
Around 75% or about 961 congregations in the Western Ohio Conference, which encompasses most of Western Ohio, chose to stay with the faith.
Some 6,182 congregations have received approval to disaffiliate since 2019, according to an unofficial tally by United Methodist News Service, which has been tracking votes by annual conferences. That figure is 4,172 for this year alone, it reported.
Divisions over LGBT people are “the symptom of a theological divide within the denomination,” said Brian Straub, an ordained pastor in the Global Methodist Church. “We all believe that gay people are worthy of Christian love. We don’t agree on how to do that.”
Straub is President of the West Ohio Wesleyan Covenant Association, which helps Ohio churches who wish to disaffiliate with the UMC through the process.
Traditional theology, Straub said, says the Church exists to bring salvation to all people. The United Methodist Church’s official mission statement is “to make disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.”
Some annual conferences may approve more departures at special sessions later this year, according to the Rev. Jay Therrell, president of the Wesleyan Covenant Association, a conservative caucus that has advocated for the exiting churches. While most UMC congregations are remaining, many of the departing congregations are large, and denominational officials are bracing for significant budget cuts in 2024.
The numbers of exiting churches are higher than conservatives originally estimated, Therrell said.
Legal wrangles have largely been resolved over how much compensation the departing congregations must pay for their property and other financial obligations.
“For the most part, bishops and other annual conference leaders have been very gracious, and I deeply appreciate that,” Therrell said. “There have been some small exceptions to that, and those are unfortunate, but we’re grateful that cooler and calmer heads have prevailed.”
Bishop Thomas Bickerton, president of the UMC’s Council of Bishops, said the departures were disappointing.
“I don’t think any of us want to see any of our churches leave,” he said. “We're called to be the body of Christ, we're called to be unified. There’s never been a time when the church has not been without conflict, but there’s been a way we’ve worked through that.”
But for those who want “to go and live out their Christian faith in a new expression, we wish God’s blessings on them,” he said.
The split has been long in the making, mirroring controversies that have led to splits in other mainline Protestant denominations. United Methodist legislative bodies, known as general conferences, have repeatedly reinforced bans on LGBTQ marriage and ordination, on the strength of coalitions of conservatives in U.S. and overseas churches.
But amid increased defiance of those bans in many U.S. churches, many conservatives decided to launch the separate Global Methodist Church, saying they believed the sexuality issues reflected deeper theological differences.
The departures have been particularly large in the South and Midwest, with states such as Texas, Alabama, Kentucky and Ohio each losing hundreds of congregations.
In some areas, United Methodists have designated "lighthouse" or similarly named congregations, with a mission for receiving members who wanted to stay United Methodists but whose churches were leaving. The GMC has begun planting new churches, including in areas where United Methodist congregations have remained in that denomination.
With these departures, progressives are expected to propose changing church law at the next General Conference in 2024 to allow for same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ people.
The United Methodist Church has about 6.5 million members in the United States and at least that many abroad, according to its website. The U.S. membership has been in steady decline, while the overseas membership has grown, particularly in Africa.
Therrell said there will be efforts at the 2024 General Conference to provide overseas churches a legal way to disaffiliate, similar to what U.S. congregations have had.
The GMC says about 3,000 churches so far have affiliated with the new denomination, with more expected.
Bickerton said it's time for United Methodists remaining in the denomination to refocus their work.
“Quite often, when you’re pressed, you begin to exhibit creativity,” he said. “We’re pivoting away from what we were into what our next expression is going to be." Budgets will be smaller, but "this is our opportunity to refashion the church for relevance in the 21st century and really focus on evangelism.”
Staff Writer London Bishop contributed to this story.