News & Reporting

A group of 36 United Methodist churches in North Carolina that had sued, demanding to sever their ties to the denomination, have agreed to leave using a plan approved by church leaders in 2019, the Western North Carolina Conference announced.

The group, which includes some of the biggest churches in the conference, will formally exit the denomination at a special session of the conference, or regional geographic body, on November 4.

United Methodists across the country are mired in a messy divorce over theological differences, mostly regarding ordination and marriage of LGBT Christians.

A North Carolina Superior Court judge dismissed the churches’ case in March, but the churches and the conference continued talking and reached a resolution late last month. The churches will leave the denomination using the denomination’s exit plan. That plan allows churches to take their properties with them but requires they meet some financial obligations before doing so.

The churches were represented by the National Center for Life and Liberty, a legal ministry that is representing thousands of United Methodist churches in multiple states. In May, the center won a lawsuit on behalf of 185 churches in Georgia who challenged a decision by the North Georgia Conference to pause the disaffiliation process.

In the North Carolina case, the center’s lead counsel, David Gibbs III, had argued that some churches needed to sue because the disaffiliation plan approved by the denomination was too onerous and amounted to ransom.

Suing to leave the denomination has not been the standard practice. Most churches wanting to break away from the United Methodist Church have followed the approved plan, known as Paragraph 2553 of the Book of Discipline. That plan expires on December 31.

Since 2019, 233 churches have left the Western North Carolina Conference of the United Methodist Church, a region that spans the western half of the state and includes 757 churches. ...