TEXARKANA -- At least one local congregation cut ties with the United Methodist Church during a denominational meeting over the weekend.
Hardy Memorial on Kings Highway joined 293 other churches in the Texas Annual Conference to disaffiliate. The delegation at the conference's special meeting Saturday at First Methodist Houston West overwhelmingly ratified the severance, with 93% of the 1,245 votes backing the measure, according to the conference website.
For now, Williams Memorial United Methodist Church on Moores Lane will remain with the UMC. Pastor Dr. Jesse Brannen said Monday it will be more than year before the congregation of about 1,500 makes its decision.
"It depends on what the General Conference in 2024 does, if they change the 'Book of Discipline' or not," Brannen said.
The conference is planned for April 23-May 3, 2024, in Charlotte, N.C. The "Book of Discipline" provides general laws and doctrine for the church and can be updated on a four-year cycle.
Potential changes to those traditional standards leave congregations like Williams Memorial holding their breath on the future of their association with the church. Not so with Hardy Memorial.
"The big public flashpoint is what is the biblical teaching, the Christian approach to sexuality and the culture war around that," said Dr. Richard Heyduck, who came to Hardy in July from a church in Fairfield, Texas. "The official United Methodist position is that the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching, and the United Methodist 'Book of Discipline' says that we're only allowed to do weddings for opposite sex people, for a man marrying a woman."
However, Heyduck said the 450-member congregation at Hardy "was fully in line" with the teaching on homosexuality.
"But they looked at at the trajectory of United Methodism across the country and saw that people were going in other directions and saying, 'We think we're just going to ignore that part of our 'Book of Discipline.' And the church here wasn't comfortable with that," he said.
Heyduck said the congregation also found itself at odds with what seemed to be a move in the UMC toward soteriological universalism, or "the idea that, hey, everybody's saved."
"I don't see that in the Bible. I don't see that in Methodist theology. It's not even in our 'Book of Discipline,'" said Heyduck, who holds a Ph.D. in theology. "This church isn't fundamentalist. There's diversity, but some of that diversity was was too broad and sometimes watered Jesus down, and we didn't."
Desiring to adhere to historic Methodism, the congregation entered what Heyduck called "a period of discernment" in July to evaluate its relationship with the general conference of the UMC. Over 40 days, the congregation examined the pros and cons of disaffiliation.
"We had times of prayer, had times of discussion. We had speakers come in and talk and represent the stay and the go perspectives," Heyduck said about the time of reflection, which is required by the UMC for congregations thinking of cutting ties.
When the congregational vote came in September, more than 80% were in favor of leaving. It takes only a two-thirds vote to enter the disaffiliation process.
Heyduck said there was no clear demographic preference for leaving or staying, with some longtime church members voting to stay and younger people wanting to leave.
Heyduck said despite the majority of Hardy's members voting to leave the UMC, the decision was anything but easy.
"Many of us are grieving, because we feel real loss even as we go forward," he said.
Before the congregation's decision could be presented at the Texas Annual Conference meeting, Hardy Memorial had to settle two years of apportionment, or financial obligations, to the conference to cover such things as pensions. Heyduck said the congregation's yearly apportionment, which also included money to the North District of the conference, amounted to about $40,000.
At Saturday's special meeting, Bishop Scott J. Jones said the loss of the 294 congregations represents about 46 percent of the financial strength of the Texas Annual Conference, which is left with about 304 congregations.
Don Morriss, chairman of the Conference Council on Finance and Administration, to share the impact on finances.
"We are going to have to make significant changes," said Don Morriss, chairman of the Conference Council on Finance and Administration, according to a report on the conference website.
Morriss projected that the 2023 conference apportionment income will be reduced by 45.9 percent. As a result, some conference staffers will be asked to limit budget spending to 70 percent, and some ministries will operate with designated reserve funds instead of budget funds.
The conference had already reduced its budget by 37 percent since 2018, according to the report. However, Morriss said the conference is financially stable and has sufficient reserves, and he expects the reserves to increase by the end of the year, based on fourth-quarter receipts.
However, finances are not on the mind of Heyduck and the congregation at Hardy. Instead, they are excited to join the Global Methodist Church. The association formed in May as a way for Methodists to maintain unity while adhering to their traditional values, said Heyduck, who has a long-standing relationship with churches that melded into the group.
"The people who originated the GMC reached the point where they said, 'We're tired of fighting. We've tried doing everything by the means the 'Book of Discipline' says, and it doesn't work. So we're going to stop fighting and try something different.'"
One thing Heyduck said he appreciates about the GMC is its emphasis on evangelism, something he said has been overlooked as the UMC tussled over homosexuality and other issues.
"Hardy has a long history of deep involvement in mission work in the community," Heyduck said. "I know, talking to our people, they're hungry to get back in the food ministry, prison ministry and all those other things we were doing. And there's a community out there full of lonely people. They need friends, and I think we can be a part of doing that."
The congregations of First United Methodist Church downtown, St. Paul United Methodist Church, St. Luke's United Methodist Church, Red Lick First United Methodist Church, Chapelwood United Methodist Church, Eylau United Methodist Church and Buchanan United Methodist Church could not be reached for comment.
The Texas Annual Conference encompases a region that includes Galveston, Houston, College Station, Texarkana, Longivew and Tyler. More than 300,000 congregants were members of the conference before Saturday's disaffiliations.
In November, 35 members of the Arkansas Annual Conference received approval for disaffiliation, including Holly Springs in Texarkana.