Maura Barrett is a correspondent for NBC News.
CHARLOTTE, N.C. — Leaders of the United Methodist Church are holding their first international conference in nearly a decade this week, tackling such divisive issues as gay marriage, ordaining LGBTQ pastors and a dwindling membership. Many congregations have fled church over the more liberal direction the once-conservative institution has taken in recent years on LGBTQ issues. Today, the membership is deeply divided and more congregations are threatening to leave.
” In 2020, the church proposed splitting into different entities to resolve long-standing disagreements over same-sex marriage and installing gay clergy. JJ Warren, a prominent LGBTQ activist, author and UMC member, favored the split. “It gives us an opportunity to say: Go off and you can practice how you need to practice and we can practice how we need to practice,” he told NBC News at the time.
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