The fracture of the United Methodist Church (UMC) is nearly complete as a quarter of U.S. congregations in the church have received permission to leave the denomination during a five-year window, closing at the end of this month. 

As CBN News reported, the UMC has been accelerating its moves to become more accepting of LGBTQ lifestyles, despite biblical prohibitions, leading to deeper divisions and more departures from the denomination. The splintering of the UMC, the second-largest denomination in the U.S. with 6.5 million members, is ongoing as thousands of local churches have left their regional conferences. 

Many conservative congregations wanted to leave the denomination because, despite the UMC forbidding the marriage or ordination of practicing homosexuals, some churches and clergy have defied those bans. 

According to the United Methodist News Service (UM News), over the last five years, 7,660 congregations, or about 25% of its U.S. churches have completed the required steps and withdrawn under paragraph 2553 of the United Methodist Book of Discipline that took effect in 2019.

But that temporary exit policy only applies to congregations in the U.S. and will expire on Dec. 31. This month, another 74 churches in Florida voted to leave, plus 51 more in Illinois, 152 in Mississippi, 8 in New Mexico, and 36 across three regions in Texas, according to Christianity Today.