Minus Over 6,000

More than 6,000 United Methodist congregations, a fifth of the U.S., have now received permission to leave the denomination over theology and the role of LGBTQ people in the nation’s second-largest Protestant denomination. Many of the departing congregations are joining the Global Methodist Church, a denomination created last year by conservatives breaking from the UMC, while others are going independent or joining different denominations. Some 6,182 congregations have received approval to disaffiliate since 2019. The United Methodist Church has about 6.5 million members.