With a historic number of churches leaving, why 2022 was so dramatic for United Methodists

• More than 1,500 churches left the United Methodist Church this fall, joining others that left this summer or previous years amid an ongoing splintering.
• The launch of a new splinter denomination in May propelled disaffiliations from the UMC, and conflict between conservative churches and bishops and other officials.
• Dwindling support for formal plan to split the UMC ahead of 2024 General Conference leaves disaffiliation as the most viable route for churches to leave the UMC despite policy’s expiration date.

It was a dramatic year for the United Methodist Church.

Regional conferences recently finished meeting for special sessions, which propelled an exodus of conservative churches from the UMC and marked one of the most consequential years in decades for the mainline Protestant denomination.

Regional conference delegates ratified 1,517 disaffiliations, or departures, from the UMC this fall, adding to 310 from the summer, according to regional conference records.

It’s a steep increase from prior years because of the launch in May of a new traditionalist denomination, the Global Methodist Church. Although churches leaving the UMC represented less than 10% of the total churches in the UMC, the departures affected some regions more heavily and left the UMC with major questions about future revenue.