Chattanooga’s largest United Methodist Church will not leave the denomination after leaders and members overwhelmingly voted the idea down.
Christ United Methodist Church on East Brainerd Road had in recent months mulled splitting off from the United Methodist Church, which at a spring meeting in Charlotte, North Carolina, lifted bans on openly gay-clergy and church sanction of same-sex marriage.
Those issues have been a flash point in a historic schism in which, by the end of 2023, a quarter of U.S. United Methodist churches — generally conservative in makeup — had split off.
Many wished to move on from a painful saga. But the policy shift in the spring left others wondering if their congregation should leave, too.