Why 1 Myrtle Beach church is staying United Methodist while 100 others in SC are leaving
Ann Sowers was shocked.
The lay leader of Joseph B. Bethea United Methodist Church in Carolina Forest learned that more than a quarter of the 90 Myrtle Beach-Marion area UMC congregations planned to leave the Christian denomination.
Joseph B. Bethea United Methodist Church chose to stay.
“It became kind of a sadness that I am losing partners in ministry,” Sowers said. “I know that we will be losing some of our regular teachers” ... in a missionary training program.
At its statewide conference in Florence on Tuesday, the United Methodist Church approved the “closure” of 113 churches across the state, allowing those local congregations to disaffiliate from the United Methodists and potentially affiliate with other denominations.
The decision for some congregations to leave came from disagreements about LGBTQ members in the church. Many churches who left wanted to exclude LGBTQ members more.
In 2019, the UMC church upheld that LGBTQ individuals are welcome as members, though the church prohibits officiating same-sex weddings and ordaining clergy who are “self-avowed practicing homosexuals.”
A UMC member for almost 30 years, Sowers said she chose Joseph B. Bethea UMC because it was “intentional about being multicultural and multiracial.” Sowers said the 39-person church is 50% white, 45% Black and 5% Hispanic.
While all UMC churches could go through a formal discernment process, Sowers said her congregation did not.
“We knew right away that we did not want to disaffiliate ... this church puts no restrictions or limits on who can attend,” she said.
Salem UMC in Conway went through the discernment process and voted to stay. Pastor Joshua Keith compared the disaffiliation process to a divorce. He said that congregations on both sides are confident they’re making the right decision moving forward, but everyone feels a sense of mourning.
Sowers said that disaffiliation was “a painful process” for “those who made the choice to leave, as well as those who stayed and are watching their siblings leave our wider church family.”
She said she hopes that believers know “there are still United Methodist churches out here willing to welcome everyone.”
Here are six Myrtle Beach-area UMC congregations that voted to separate from the denomination. The Sun News reached out to these churches for comment, and had not received responses by the time of publication.
Brown Swamp UMC, Conway
Wayne UMC, Georgetown
Aynor UMC, Aynor
Pisgah UMC, Aynor
Zoan UMC, Loris
First UMC, Loris
This story was originally published June 7, 2023 at 3:08 PM.
