Dozens of North Texas congregations have left the United Methodist Church since 2019

Fifty-three congregations have left the United Methodist Church from its North Texas Conference, according to a recent report, amid a denomination-wide rift over LGBTQ policies.

United Methodists have spent decades disagreeing on human sexuality. In 2019, the denomination gave churches special permission to leave and keep their properties if they cited “reasons of conscience” regarding human sexuality and left before the end of 2023.

About a quarter of the nation’s approximately 30,000 United Methodist churches left over those four years, including 53 congregations in the North Texas Conference, according to a recent report by the Lewis Center for Church Leadership. The research center is part of a United Methodist seminary in Washington, D.C.

The recent conflict is largely over the United Methodist Church’s bans on same-sex marriage and clergy members in gay relationships. The prohibitions were strengthened in a plan passed by a slim majority of church delegates from around the world in 2019, though enforcement has varied in the U.S.; in North Texas, some unmarried gay clergy have been ordained. The denomination is set to vote again on the bans at a meeting April 23-May 3 in Charlotte, N.C.

The North Texas Conference lost 19% of its churches, less than any other conference in the state, according to the Lewis Center report. By contrast, the Northwest Texas Conference lost 162, or 81%, of its churches, and the Central Texas Conference, which includes Arlington and Fort Worth, lost 122, or 44%.

Of its more than three dozen United Methodist congregations, Dallas only lost one. Most of the departures in the North Texas Conference were from places outside the Dallas area.

Here’s a map of all 53 churches that left from the North Texas Conference.

Joy Ashford covers faith and religion in North Texas for The Dallas Morning News through a partnership with Report for America.