As the United Methodist Church regroups following a schism in which 1 in 4 of its U.S. churches have splintered off, denominational leadership last week announced a proposal to reconfigure episcopal areas in the Southeast U.S.
Under the plan, the Holston Conference would no longer share a bishop with the North Alabama Conference. Instead, it would start sharing one with United Methodist conferences based in Kentucky.
The Holston Conference governs United Methodist churches in the Chattanooga area from North Georgia through East Tennessee and into Southwest Virginia.
(READ MORE: 261 more Methodist churches in North Georgia to split)
Clergy are generally assigned to different churches within a given conference. Under the new plan, conference boundaries would not change, and clergy would still not have to be appointed across conference lines, Holston Conference Communications Director Tim Jones said by phone Friday.