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A Texas megachurch has announced it is leaving The United Methodist Church (UMC) without a congregational vote after being a part of the denomination for more than 36 years.
St. Andrew United Methodist Church of Plano has more than 6,000 members and it recently shared that it was disaffiliating from UMC and changing its name.
“Everyone involved has a deep love for the denomination that birthed us, but the fractures and flaws of the institution are too deep to ignore. What you may have read in the media or heard does not fully paint the picture of the complexities of the question and our resulting decision,” the statement said.
The church’s senior pastor, Arthur Jones, and Executive Committee Chair Kathy King shared that leaders voted to leave the denomination due to wanting “to create affiliations with those who also desire greater accountability with more efficient systems and structures” than they have had with the UMC.
But the leaders assured congregates in the open letter that “everything was gonna be alright.”
The church also announced it would not affiliate with the Global Methodist Church and would be changing its name to St. Andrew Methodist and “operate over a period as an independent Methodist church while seeking partnerships and accountability with other like-hearted churches.”
The church’s departure violates UMC’s mainline denomination’s rules on dismissal.
According to The UMC Book of Discipline paragraph 2553, any “decision to disaffiliate” from the mainline denomination “must be approved by a two-thirds (2/3) majority vote of the professing members of the local church present at the church conference.”
According to the North Texas Conference of United Methodist Church’s website, a church’s disaffiliation from the denomination takes nine to 12 months.
St. Andrew United Methodist Church of Plano’s announcement comes amid disagreements over United Methodist clergy performing marriages for LGBTQ couples and ordaining LGBTQ people as clergy in the church.
As CBN News reported, 31 UMC-affiliated churches in western North Carolina demanded to leave the denomination. Additionally, more than 100 churches sued the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) because they wanted to leave the denomination immediately.
Dozens of churches in Georgia also split from the United Methodist Church (UMC) over disputes related to LGBTQ issues.
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Reprinted with permission from CBN.com. Copyright © 2022 The Christian Broadcasting Network Inc. All rights reserved.
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Talia Wise serves as a multi-media producer for CBN News Newswatch, CBNNews.com and social media outlets. Prior to joining CBN News she worked for Fox Sports Florida producing and reporting. Talia attended Regent University where she earned a Master’s in Journalism and the University of Virginia.
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