KNOXVILLE, Tenn. — Nearly 1,000 East Tennesseans with the United Methodists of the Holston Conference worshipped together for the last time on Saturday.
After years of disagreements between members over their views on same-sex marriage, sexuality and biblical authority, the Holston United Methodists held a special conference to finalize a split with 264 congregations to allow them to leave the denomination.
The session was held at the Central United Methodist Church in downtown Knoxville. The meeting also included a visioning and prayer campaign for the future of the Holston Conference and its 578 remaining churches in East Tennessee, Southwest Virginia and North Georgia.
“It is a poignant day as our disaffiliating churches and withdrawing pastors have played an important role in the lives of those of us continuing in The United Methodist Church,” said Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett, resident bishop. “Our conference vote today ratifying disaffiliations will not change the impact these pastors and churches have had on us.”
The UMC said roughly half of the congregations that have split have joined the newly formed Global Methodist Church, a "traditionalist" denomination that was formed in 2022 after a national schism between liberal and conservative Methodist churches.
Several churches splitting from the UMC said they were displeased with bishops violating denominational policies in procedures, particularly when it comes to LGBTQ+ involvement in the church.
The United Methodist Church outlaws gay marriage on church grounds and does not allow pastors to be "self-avowed, practicing homosexuals," however, many U.S. churches have moved to support progressive policies. In late 2022, the church saw its second openly gay bishop elected in Salt Lake City.
The Holston Conference said its membership will drop 21% after the departure, from roughly 148,000 members to 117,000.
“I see 578 churches who now have the opportunity and the calling to set a new course,” Goddard said. “As painful as the last hour was, that hour has passed. Now we have this hour, this moment, and I believe in this time we have the potential and possibility to write a new chapter, to give us a fresh new start, to set us on a renewed and revived path of faithfulness.”