Twenty-three congregations in the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church received permission to leave the organization Thursday, when delegates to the church's annual business session voted to allow the departures, officials said.
Approval for the 23 “disaffiliating” congregations came as a single vote as delegates met at the Hilton Hotel in Baltimore.
Among the congregations approved to leave is Highland United Methodist Church in Berkeley Springs, West Virginia. The church was one of 38 UMC churches that sued the Baltimore-Washington Conference in March, alleging that officials were demanding a “financial ransom” in order to leave. A chart from the church’s UM News service shows a total of 4,359 congregations have been approved to disaffiliate, approximately 14% of the denomination’s 30,543 U.S. congregations reported in 2019.
Asking congregations to pay half the value of their property reflects “incredible greed we’re seeing on the part of United Methodist officials which is something the scripture has lots of warning about,” he said.
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