Your Vote Matters!

How to Join the Traditional Wesleyan Denomination

Please call members of Church Council to let them know your desire to have the opportunity to vote to join the new Traditional Methodist denomination. Let them know:

That you want to vote as soon as possible after General Conference.
- There is no requirement to wait for the 2022 South Carolina Annual Conference.

That you want the vote to be a simple majority.
- A small minority (regardless of alignment) should not influence the direction of the congregation.

That you want the vote to be held by secret ballot.
- All persons (regardless of alignment) should feel comfortable voting their conscience.

Church Council Member List

The following are those portions of the Protocol Legislation, submitted to General Conference, that outlines how local churches may make the decision to join the new traditional Methodist denomination:

¶ 2556 –Reconciliation and Grace Through Separation and Restructuring

4. Process of alignment in the United States—The following shall be the process for churches in the United States to separate from The United Methodist Church to align with a New Methodist Denomination.

c) Local Churches—(1) Local churches in the United States that disagree with their annual conference’s decision to separate from The United Methodist Church or that wish to make an earlier decision to separate from The United Methodist Church may, by vote of those professing members present and voting at a regular or called church conference, choose, as applicable, to remain in The United Methodist Church or to separate and form or join a New Methodist Denomination. The church council or equivalent body of each congregation shall determine in advance whether to require a simple majority or two-thirds vote for such a decision. A vote on a motion to opt for a different affiliation from that of the annual conference shall occur in a church conference held not more than 60 days after the request for such a vote is made by the church council or the pastor to the district superintendent. Notwithstanding other provisions in the Book of Discipline, such church conferences shall be held in consultation with the district superintendent, who shall without exercising discretion authorize such church conferences according to the process laid out in ¶ 246. Local churches not taking a vote by December 31, 2024, shall by default remain in the denomination of their annual conference. If a church votes to affiliate with a New Methodist Denomination that fails to be certified according to the provisions of ¶ 2556.3c, then the local church will remain part of the post separation United Methodist Church.

(3) Local churches are permitted to take such votes prior to their annual conference’s vote at any time following the adjournment of the... General Conference, after appropriate notice (see ¶ 246) to all members.