More than 1M Methodists leave church over same-sex rule change

The United Methodist Church has lost more than 1 million members over new rules on premarital sex and homosexuality.

The United Methodist Church in the Ivory Coast in West Africa announced its decision to leave the denomination after delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.

Delegates voted 692-51 during the General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month. Past General Conferences of the United Methodist Church reinforced the ban and related penalties amid debate and protests. However, many conservatives who had previously upheld the ban have left the denomination in recent years, and the General Conference has moved in a solidly progressive direction.