Methodist Church, The wave of disaffiliation forces the North Georgia UMC to “suspend” the process until April 2024

Methodist Church: Wave of disaffiliation demands forces North Georgia UMC Conference to “suspend” process until April 2024

The United Methodist Church’s conference in Georgia will temporarily block member churches from disaffiliating with the second-largest denominationnomination Protestantism in the United States amid the denominational schism overhomosexuality.

In a E-mail sent to member churches, the North Georgia Conference of the UMC announced its decision to “suspend” the disaffiliation process, claiming that “many local churches have been misled about the disaffiliation process and given information on the process” and on the leadership of the UMC “which is factually incorrect and defamatory. »

“We are very concerned about this misinformation and are well aware that it has the potential to cause irreparable harm,” the announcement said. “We do not have confidence in the validity of the church conference’s upcoming disaffiliation votes. »

The UMC North Georgia conference says the misinformation came “in the form of printed materials, PowerPoint presentations, websites, videos, emails and posts on social networks» which constitute a “violation of integrity”. The email did not name those responsible for sharing the alleged misinformation.

The North Georgia Conference, which has more than 700 member churches, said disaffiliation will not occur until the next session of the General Conference of the United Methodist Church, which will be held April 23 through May 3, 2024 in Charlotte, North Carolina.

“This pause will allow churches to gain more information about the real future, rather than the false or hypothetical future, of our church. »

In June, the conference ratified the disaffiliations of 70 congregations representing 9% of churches in the regionnomination and 3% of its members, along with hundreds of other congregations across the country, have left the UMC over the ongoing debate over the church’s official position onhomosexuality.

The UMC disciplinary book qualifies thehomosexuality d “incompatible with Christian teaching” and prohibits the blessing of same-sex unions or the ordination of non-celibate homosexuals.

However, many theological liberals in the UMC categorically oppose the biblical position of the Book of Discipline, and some leaders of thenomination refused to enforce the rules.

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The article was written by: Anugrah Kumar from www.christianpost.com [irp]

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