Methodists vote to leave UMC
By Sam Waller
Members of the Methodist church in Albany voted overwhelmingly last week to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church.
Lance Thomas, president of the church’s board of trustees, said 32 church members voted Tuesday, July 26, with 94 percent favoring disaffiliation.
“This process has been going on for about 20 years, but in the last two or three general conferences, it’s kind of come to a head,” Thomas said. “It’s about how people see the Word of God."
Thomas said the disaffiliation process will be completed in December when the Northwest Texas Conference meets to ratify the disaffiliation votes of all churches in the conference. Once ratified, the official new name of the church that meets at the corner of Jacobs and N. 2nd Street will be the Albany Methodist Church.
The Methodist church in Albany is the oldest Methodist church in the Northwest Texas Conference. Founded in 1873 as the Methodist Episcopal Church, the Albany Methodist Church remains committed to serving and making disciples of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, Thomas said.
“If someone sees the Word of God as subject to personal interpretation and the whims of whatever age we’re living in, then they go down one path,” Thomas said. “What the traditional Methodists have always believed is we look at the Word of God, and that’s what we’re going to follow from now until Jesus comes back.”
The United Methodist Church formed in 1973 when many regional Methodist church conferences voted to set aside differences and combine.
Thomas said the local church can choose to join the Global Methodist Church or remain independent.
"What I hope is we join the traditional Methodists around the globe,” he said. “That’s really where the vast majority of Methodists are. The American Methodists are a minority from a global standpoint, and the more progressive are a vast minority around the world.”
Thomas said he expects the majority of the churches in the Northwest Texas Conference that leave the United Methodist Church will join the Global Methodist Church.
