A Mississippi church has dissociated from the United Methodist Church (UMC) over the denomination’ stance on homosexuality.
Christ United Methodist Church of Jackson, voted last week to disaffiliate from the UMC’s Mississippi Conference.
The church will change its name to “Christ United – Jackson” on January 1, 2024, after “months of deliberation” regarding association with the blessing of gay marriages and the ordination of homosexual clergy.
“Please continue to pray for our church. Pray for our leaders as they gather this week to prepare Christ United to make disciples of Jesus Christ for this next season of life within the church,” the church said.
“According to UM News, the official news-gathering agency of the UMC, 4,645 churches officially split from the UMC so far this year,” the Catholic News Agency reported. “That is more than double the number of churches that left in the previous year (2,003) and almost 10 times the number in 2021 (486).”
Many former UMC churches have also started to affiliate themselves with the Global Methodist Church (GMC) instead, a more conservative-leaning alternative to the UMC.
From Breitbart:
Although the UMC Book of Discipline does not allow the blessing of same-sex marriages or the ordination of people in same-sex unions, many Methodist churches do not enforce these stances, according to the Christian Post.
