More than 400 Texas churches voted this past weekend to cut ties with the United Methodist Church (UMC) after decades of disagreements over stances on issues like same-sex marriage, LGBTQ ordination and abortion.
Members of the Northwest Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church gathered Saturday for a special session, where 145 of 201 congregations agreed to leave or “disaffiliate” from the denomination, including eight Lubbock churches This includes churches stretching from West Texas to the Panhandle.
On the same day, the Texas Annual Conference met at a church in Houston, and that ultimately resulted in 294 of its 598 member churches across east Texas deciding to officially leave also. Thus far, 439 churches have requested to disaffiliate after this weekend’s two Methodist conferences in Texas.