(Baltimore, MD) — Members of the Baltimore-Washington Conference of the United Methodist Church are voting today on the pending departure of 23 churches over LGBTQ issues. The conference is made up of more than 600 churches in most of Maryland, Washington DC, and West Virginia’s panhandle. Some member churches have disagreed with the church’s attitude toward same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ people as clergy. If the dissenting churches are allowed to leave the worldwide church, they may elect to join the Global Methodist Church, which is more conservative. It was formed last year and claims about two-thousand churches.
