The United Methodist Church has lost a quarter of its U.S. churches in a recent schism, with conservatives leaving over sexual and theological controversies.

Now, as the first major legislative session in several years approaches, the question is whether the church can avoid similar outcomes in other parts of the world, where about half of its members live.

The problem is particularly acute in Africa, home to the vast majority of United Methodists outside the United States. The majority of the country’s bishops favor remaining, but there are also calls for the regional conference to break away.

At the upcoming general conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, delegates will discuss a wide range of proposals — from repealing the church’s ban on same-sex marriage and ordaining LGBTQ individuals to creating more autonomy for regional conferences to enact Such rules, then, make it easier for international churches to break away from the denomination.

Liberian representative Jerry Kula said he believed it was time for the African church to leave.

He said that when he first attended general conference in 2008, he was shocked by proposals to loosen church rules. He has since helped mobilize African delegates to join U.S. conservatives in voting for stricter denominational rules, opposing same-sex marriage and the ordination of LGBTQ individuals.

But progressive American churches are increasingly rebelling against these rules and now appear to have the votes to overturn them.

“We know we’re not necessarily in the convention to win votes,” said Kula, general coordinator of the advocacy group UMC’s Africa Initiative. “So our goal is to make our position clear and let the world know why it is necessary to break away from the United Methodist Church because we are unable to preach a different gospel.”

But fellow Liberian representative Jefferson Knight opposed disengagement. He said secession would mean abandoning UMC’s rich spiritual heritage in Africa and would sever its valuable international ties.

“Liberia was the birthplace of United Methodism on the continent in the 1800s,” said Knight of the United Methodist Africa Forum, an advocacy group. Knight, who also serves as the church’s human rights ombudsman, said the church has developed leaders in education, health care and evangelism across the continent.

Knight said the split was unnecessary.

He shares Africa’s widespread opposition to liberalizing marriage or ordination policies, but he favors a proposal that would allow each region of the church – from the United States to Africa, Europe to the Philippines – to set rules based on local circumstances.

“The best way forward is to regionalize and see how we can do ministry peacefully and within our context and culture,” Knight said.

The United Methodist Church, which traces its roots to 18th-century revivalist John Wesley, has long emphasized Christian piety, evangelism and social service. This phenomenon has historically existed in nearly every U.S. county.

But it is also the most cosmopolitan of the major American Protestant denominations.

Generations of missionary efforts brought Methodism to all parts of the world. Local churches took root and grew rapidly, especially in Africa.

Today, members from four continents vote in legislative assemblies, serve together on boards of directors, go on mission trips to each other’s countries, and largely play by the same rules. American churches help fund international ministries such as the University of Africa in Zimbabwe.

According to University of Michigan News statistics, more than 7,600 U.S. congregants left between 2019 and 2023, allowing congregations to retain their properties (held in trust by the denomination) under relatively favorable legal terms.

This provision applies only to American churches. Some say that the General Conference, held from April 23 to May 3, should approve a plan from other countries.

“Our main goal is to ensure that other United Methodists in Africa and outside the United States have the same opportunities as United Methodists in the United States,” said the Rev. Thomas Lambrecht, vice president of the conservative advocacy group Good News.

Opponents say overseas churches can already dissolve under church rules – a measure already taken by some conferences in Eastern Europe. But supporters say the process is too cumbersome.

To further complicate matters, churches operate in a range of legal environments. Some African countries criminalize same-sex behavior, while in the United States, same-sex marriage is legal.

Most of the American churches that left were conservative churches unhappy with the denomination’s failure to enforce bans on same-sex unions and the ordination of LGBTQ people. Some joined denominations such as the new Global Methodist Church, while others became independent.

The departures have accelerated membership losses in what until recently was the third-largest denomination in the United States. In 2022, United Methodist Church membership in the United States was 5.4 million, a number that is sure to drop significantly if divisions since 2023 are taken into account.

A detailed study by the UMC General Council of Finance and Administration found that there are 4.6 million members in other countries – fewer than previous estimates but still close to the U.S. figure.

The United Methodist Church has been discussing gay issues since the early 1970s and steadily tightened its ban on LGBTQ people during its last legislative session in 2019.

That year, “traditionalists won the vote, but they lost the church,” said the Rev. Mark Holland, executive director of the Mainline United Methodist Church. The group advocates lifting church-wide bans and has proposed “regionalization” that would allow each region to determine such rules.

He noted that many regional church conferences in the United States responded to the 2019 vote by electing more progressive representatives to the upcoming general conference.

Progressives believe they have enough votes to repeal provisions of the Book of Discipline that prohibit the ordination of “professed homosexuals” and punish priests who solemnize same-sex marriages.

Less certain is the fate of regionalization, which would enhance regional autonomy. Regionalization involves a constitutional amendment that requires a two-thirds majority in the General Assembly and approval by two-thirds of local conferences around the world.

Supporters say regionalization would also bring equality to different regions and say the current system is a relic of the early missionary era that was centered on the United States. Regionalization could also allow churches in some areas to maintain LGBTQ bans while others lift them.

Church regions outside the United States already have some leeway in adapting rules to fit their circumstances, but regionalization would more precisely define that flexibility and extend it to the American church.

The United Methodist Church in the Philippines – the only church in Asia with about 280,000 members – will continue to oppose same-sex marriage because same-sex marriage is not legally recognized in the Philippines, a church official said. It also does not allow for the public appointment of LGBTQ individuals.

Most African bishops oppose seceding from the Church and even oppose LGBTQ ordination and marriage.

“While we in the United Methodist Church are divided on issues of human sexuality, and particularly our positions on traditional and biblical views of marriage, we have made it clear that we do not intend to leave The United Methodist Church and will continue to do so in this areas to become shepherds of God’s flock. World denominations,” said a statement signed by 11 African bishops at a meeting in September.

Bishop John Wesley Yohanna of Nigeria was among those who refused to sign.

The Methodist Church in Nigeria celebrated the denomination’s 100th anniversary in the country in December, but its future remains unclear. In Nigeria, views on sex are very conservative. A spokesman said the bishop’s stance on seceding would depend on the situation at the General Conference.

Johanna said same-sex marriage is “unbiblical and incompatible with Christian teachings in our Book of Discipline” at a January press conference, where he also “opposed regionalization.”