Separation process ends
Court rules no more UMCSC church separations via Para. 2549
By Jessica Brodie
South Carolina United Methodist churches hoping to separate from the denomination through the conference’s Local Church Discernment Process can no longer do so.
On Oct. 26, the Judicial Council—the top court for The United Methodist Church—ruled that Para. 2549 cannot be used to permit the exit of local churches.
In Decision 1512, the court states that Para. 2549 “cannot be construed or used as legislation permitting the gracious exit of local churches because it applies to church closure and the sale of property, not disaffiliation. Any application of Para. 2549 to that end would be a misapplication of church law.”
“As a connectional church, the South Carolina Conference is bound by the decisions of the Judicial Council,” said Bishop Leonard Fairley, resident bishop of the South Carolina Conference, and the Rev. Shannon Bullion, chairperson of the conference trustees, in a joint statement released Oct. 29. “The impact of this decision is that, effective immediately, the Local Church Closure and Separation Process approved by the trustees of the annual conference is no longer available as a means of separation from the denomination.”
Earlier this year, on Aug. 5, the trustees released a statement affirming they planned to continue to offer the discernment process one more year as a means for local churches to determine whether they will separate from denomination. They said the process, which concludes with a vote by lay and clergy members of the annual conference, would not continue after the 2025 Annual Conference gathering.
However, they noted requests for declaratory decisions on the constitutionality of the use of Para. 2549 were on the fall docket of the UMC Judicial Council and could affect the continued use of Para. 2549 as a means for separation.
The Judicial Council did indeed rule the use of Para. 2549 to be unconstitutional, so now the process is no longer an option.
Since 2022, the South Carolina Conference has approved the separation of 225 churches from the conference— a total of about 23.4 percent—using Para. 2549. In June 2023, 113 of the 958 churches separated from the denomination, and in June 2024, 112 additional churches separated. The list of 2023 and 2024 separating churches can be found at https://advocatesc.org/separation.
In their decision, the court noted that using Para. 2549 for separations “contradicts the clear intent of Para. 2549 by taking members and properties from the United Methodist Church and continuing religious activities as a new entity no longer a part of the United Methodist denomination.” They said using Para. 2549 in this way “is another failed attempt to circumvent the trust clause, a hallmark of United Methodist polity.”
The court noted another provision in the Book of Discipline, Para. 2553, did allow congregations to disaffiliate from the UMC and take property, though that paragraph expired at the end of last year, and this year’s General Conference further removed it from the Discipline. In essence, the court said, churches can’t use Para. 2549 as an alternate way to exit and take property with them.
“The congregation cannot now use Para. 2549.3(b) to accomplish what was allowed in Para. 2553. It is clear that Para. 2549.3(b) was not intended to be used this way; if it could, then there would not have been a need for Para. 2553,” the court further clarified.
South Carolina’s Fairley and Bullion noted anyone with questions can call 803-735-8771 or email [email protected].
“We invite all South Carolina United Methodists to join us in focusing our prayers, our time and our energy on our mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of the world,” they added in their statement. “Join us in seeing the possibilities and living the promise—in sharing the grace, the love and the peace of Jesus Christ among God’s people.”