Court backs SC United Methodist churches leaving liberal denomination | Eastern NC Now

A South Carolina judge has announced that he intends to rule with 70 United Methodist churches in that state which want to leave the liberal denomination.  He has asked attorneys for the 70 departing churches to draft an order dismissing the case brought against them by the denominations South Carolina conference and a number of individual loyalist churches. In the lawsuit, the conference was attempting to take the departing churches buildings away from them.

"Social gospel" liberalism has been rife in the United Methodist Church for decades, but came to a head in the denomination in 2024 over homosexuality.  A new church body that abandoned much of the social gospel, known as the Global Methodist Church was established.  Homosexuality is hardly the only area where the UMC has gone hard left, Another is illegal immigration, which is promoted by UMC through some of its denominational bodies.

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/2026/10/court-set-deliver-big-win-70-churches-seeking/

Here in Beaufort County, First United Methodist Church of Washington decamped to the new Global Methodist Church during the split.  Among the minority of the congregation backing the liberal branch of the church and who subsequently left the congregation were liberal School Board Member Carolyn Walker and her husband county commissioner Randy Walker.

Many other congregations in eastern North Carolina also decamped from the liberal church body at the same time.

Homosexuality has also come to a head as a divisive issue in the Anglican (Episcopal) after a new and much more liberal Archbishop of Canterbury was chosen, whose pro-homosexual record was highly objectionable to the church's African and Asian members. The African group has gone as far as announcing it no longer recognized the Archbishop of Canterbury and the church bodies she appoints as leaders of the church, with the Asian group making noises in support of their African bretheren,