The Fountains has been one of the more outspoken United Methodist churches in our conference having voted over ten years ago to align ourselves with the Reconciling Ministries Network, publicly welcome and affirm LGBTQ folks as part of our congregation and perform same-sex marriages.”

David Felten, Pastor Fountains United Methodist Church

By Bob Burns
Mail

With a Dec. 31, deadline to make a decision on disaffiliating, the United Methodist Church could be losing as many as 20% to 25% of its 30,000 congregations in the United States.

As of the week before Christmas, 7,600 had voted to separate and form what is known as the Global Methodist Church.

The Fountains a United Methodist Church in Fountain Hills will not be a part of the exodus from the church.

“The Fountains will not be separating from the United Methodist Church,” David Felten, pastor at The Fountains said. “It has never been a question that was brought up by anyone in the congregation. We have a clear sense of who we are as a congregation, and, at present, that is aligned with the United Methodist denomination.

“The Fountains has been one of the more outspoken United Methodist churches in our conference having voted over 10 years ago to align ourselves with the Reconciling Ministries Network, publicly welcome and affirm LGBTQ folks as part of our congregation and perform same-sex marriages.”

According to Felten the split is largely a geographic and cultural phenomenon. The majority of the disaffiliating churches are in the South Central and South Eastern jurisdictions of the church. Some portions of the south, nearly three-quarters of the churches have disaffiliated, according to Felten. These are areas that separated from the Methodist Episcopal Church prior to the Civil War to form the Methodist Episcopal Church South. They returned to the church in the 1930s. There are other pockets of conservative churches in the Midwest.

Felten said that in the Desert Southwest Conference (Arizona and Clark County, Nev.) there have been no churches successful is disaffiliation. There was discussion with some of those churches and some pastors have left the denomination.

Although Dec. 31, is the deadline for separation, Felten said there is a critical discussion coming up in April for the church’s General Conference. At that meeting there will be discussions regarding the future direction of the reduced United Methodist Church.

“Going forward, the people of Fountain Hills can count on The Fountains being a beacon of open-minded spirituality, inquiry, and inclusivity for the community,” Felten said.

We invite our readers to submit their civil comments on this issue. Email AZOpinions@iniusa.org. Bob Burns can be reached at bburns@iniusa.org.