Jacksonville congregations want to break from United Methodist Church over LGBTQ stances
The futures of 10 Methodist congregations in Northeast Florida — and dozens statewide — hang on a vote Saturday about separating from the United Methodist Church, a multimillion-member denomination shrinking nationwide.
Forty-six congregations are asking the Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church (UMC) to approve their inclusion in a process called disaffiliation.
The process lets congregations sever ties and keep their buildings in return for payments known as exit obligations to help answer intense disagreements about church stances on homosexuality and ordaining gay clergy.
“The Florida Conference lay and clergy leadership respects that the decision to stay or leave the denomination should be one of conscience,” the conference notes in an FAQ section to a guide it prepared for Saturday’s online meeting.
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The vote will be the second time this year that congregations in the Lakeland-based conference will have a chance to disaffiliate.
A third meeting on Dec. 2 will be the final chance for disaffiliation through the conference.
A rule laying out conditions for disaffiliating “because of the current deep conflict” expires Dec. 31. The rule includes preconditions for leaving, such as a vote by two-thirds of congregation members.
Some congregations leaving UMC plan to join the newly-organized Global Methodist Church, which has reported growing to more than 3,000 congregations since its launch last year. Other churches could remain independent or join other denominations.
The 46 churches seeking to leave represent 13,193 members, about nine percent of the Florida conference’s 145,577 members, according to conference figures from the end of last year.
Who’s trying to leave?
In Jacksonville, congregations from these churches have asked to disaffiliate:
CrossRoad Church, 10005 Gate Parkway North;
Lake Shore UMC, 2246 Blanding Blvd.;
Mount Zion UMC, 1238 Ballard Ridge Road;
Ortega UMC, 4807 Roosevelt Blvd.;
Southside UMC, 3120 Hendricks Ave.;
Spring Glen UMC, 6007 Beach Blvd.
Outside of Duval County, disaffiliation is being sought by Ponte Vedra UMC, Orange Park UMC, First UMC in Green Cove Springs and First UMC in Macclenny as well as churches in Bradford and Putnam counties.
UMC’s Florida conference reports having more than 500 congregations now but has already lost 72 congregations to disaffiliation, according to a count by UM News, UMC’s newsgathering agency.
Nationwide, conferences have approved 6,179 disaffiliations since 2019, UM News reported.
This article originally appeared on Florida Times-Union: 10 Jacksonville-area churches trying to leave United Methodist Church
