Remaining United Methodists already are moving past the departures' trauma, gaining new energy to fulfill one of founder John Wesley's primary instructions, to "do good."
Thirty-eight United Methodist Church congregations in Maryland and West Virginia have sued the Baltimore-Washington Conference and its leader, Bishop LaTrelle Easterling, claiming the regional body is extorting a "financial ransom" of half their church property value as they seek to leave the denomination.
At least 130 congregations have quietly walked away from the United Methodist Church in a schism over the denominations' planned acceptance of same-sex marriage and homosexual clergy.