United Methodist Splittists: White, Southern And Male

The traditionalist exodus out of the United Methodist Church (UMC) in the US is definitively white, Southern, and male-led, according to a scholarly analysis of the most recent available data, Liam Adams reported for USA TODAY.

Photo Insert: More churches are expected to leave the UMC by the end of the year.

The report is the second of its kind from the Lewis Center for Church Leadership, a research center out of the UMC-affiliated Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington D.C., using a much larger data set than the first.

The new report shows that of the 6,000-plus churches that have left the UMC through disaffiliation, 70% of whom are in the denomination’s two Southern jurisdictions, and 98% are majority white.

There are more than 30,000 UMC churches in the US. The key figure in the disaffiliations is Jay Therell, head of the Wesleyan Covenant Association (WCA), who has just announced his resignation from the association.

More churches are expected to leave the UMC by the end of the year and lead researcher Lovett Weems, emeritus distinguished professor at Wesley, expects the trends to stay the same.

“When we had the first 2,000, there was pushback the trends would change. But they really didn’t,” Weems said, comparing the newest report with the first one released in February using data through the end of 2022.

“There’s no reason at this point” to expect a drastic change, Weems added. The first schism in the US Methodist Church happened in 1844 when Southern Methodists broke off from the church because they supported slavery.

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