Disaffiliation Legal Update

The Missouri Annual Conference states that recently it has had the opportunity to mediate with some churches seeking to disaffiliate from the denomination: Schweitzer Church, Morning Star Church, SunRise, The Way and Sarcoxie United Methodist Church. The Conference is pleased to announce that the parties were able to make substantial progress towards a resolution of the matters submitted to mediation and have entered into signed term sheets that set forth a conditional agreement for resolving these matters. The Conference believes that the churches and the Conference will be able to conclude the disaffiliation of the churches under Paragraph 2553 of the United Methodist Church Book of Discipline by the time of the Annual Conference’s meeting in June of 2023. This statement is available on the Missouri Conference website at https://www.moumethodist.org/newsdetail/disaffiliation-legal-update-16613165.