I lived in a small town pre-pandemic and was surprised the church had a rainbow sticker on their door. What they also had a smug congregation who during church brunches would go “I don’t care about their lifestyle but why do they gotta shove it in my face?”
Context: All the congregations that refused started leaving the UMC in 2019.
The decision was unanimous because the bigots schismed the church, the largest religious schism in American history.
So, yes, the remaining churches will accept them. The ones that didn’t already left. Expect to hear good things from them under the label of the Global Methodists.
They’ve been working on this for years, an opportunity to schism gracefully was offered in advance. In the UK, they’ve allowed individual congregations to decide what can happen in their church building(s), and individual clergy to opt out of officiating.
Already underway. The last time this stuff was voted on it was very narrowly blocked. I think a lot of the more conservative leaning churches saw the writing on the wall and have been leaving and set up the Global Methodist Church as a replacement organization. I seem to recall nearly a quarter of Methodist churches in the US have left the UMC.
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