In 2019, at a special session of the General Conference, a temporary process was added to the Book of Discipline to facilitate the disaffiliation of churches from the UMC for a narrow set of reasons. That temporary addendum, inserted as ¶2553, outlined a disaffiliation process to be accessible until December 31, 2023. (Addendum to The Book of Discipline of The United Methodist Church, 2016). At the postponed 2020 General Conference meeting in 2024, no petition was adopted to extend ¶2553, and therefore, that provision expired and will not be contained in the 2024 Book of Discipline.
Upon the expiration of ¶2553, a question was raised as to whether a group of members of a local church could separate from the United Methodist Church using ¶2549 Disposition of Property of a Closed Local Church. While this paragraph outlines how to close a church, ¶2549 does not address separation or disaffiliation, nor do its provisions create a right to separate.
In June, 2024 the Kentucky Conference requested guidance from The Judicial Council of the United Methodist Church regarding the potential for future exits from the denomination by local churches. Specifically, Kentucky asked if in light of the expiration of ¶2553, if ¶2549 or some other provision of the Book of Discipline could be utilized to allow for a pathway to exit the denomination.
Like the Kentucky Conference, other annual conference sessions requested rulings of the Judicial Council that would clarify whether ¶2549 can be used to allow a local church to separate from the denomination, and if so, the process annual conferences must follow under ¶2549 if a church were to request closure for the purposes of allowing its members to separate as a group from The United Methodist Church and continue in some other faith expression. These requests were placed on the Judicial Council’s Fall 2024 Docket.
The Judicial Council has now met and definitively ruled that ¶2549 may not be used as a method of exit from the United Methodist Church. The Judicial Council specifically stated in Decision 1512:
“Connectionalism is a bedrock principle of United Methodist constitutional polity, and the Trust Clause is its foundational element. Disaffiliation is a radical departure from connectionalism, and, therefore, church property can be released from the Trust Clause only to the extent authorized by Church law.
With the expiration and deletion of ¶2553, the postponed 2020 General Conference effectively removed from The Book of Discipline, 2016, [hereinafter Discipline] the only pathway for the disaffiliation of local churches. Except for the General Conference, no body or entity in the Church has the power to reinstate or replicate ¶2553 or adopt legislation, policies, guidelines, rules, or regulations authorizing the departure of local churches. Any such action, plan, or attempt to do so intrudes upon the exclusive prerogative of the General Conference and is unconstitutional, null, and void.
Further, ¶2549 cannot be construed or used as legislation permitting the “gracious exit” of local churches because it applies to church closure and the sale of property, not disaffiliation. Any application of ¶2549 to that end would be a misapplication of Church law.”
As an Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, our Conference is bound by church law. Accordingly, we are unable to offer a path to separation from the United Methodist Church for local churches. Of course, as has always been the case, individuals are free to pursue the faith expression of their choosing.
We continue to believe that The United Methodist Church is a place for all people, and we remain committed to our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world.
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