The United Methodist Church has lost one-fifth of its churches since 2019, according to a recent tally by the United Methodist News Service.

Disagreements about theology, sexuality, so-called same-sex marriage, and the ordination of self-identified LGBT clergy have led many UMC churches to disaffiliate from the denomination.

Though the UMC officially prohibits same-sex marriages and the ordination of openly LGBT clergy, many theologically conservative Methodists are exiting the denomination over the open defiance of these rules by some churches and clergymen. Last year, a group of breakaway conservatives founded the Global Methodist Church, which has seen rapid growth in its first year of existence, now overseeing nearly 3,000 congregations and 3,200 clergy.

As of this month, more than 6,000 of the UMC’s 30,000 churches have chosen to go through the disaffiliation process created at the denomination’s 2019 General Conference. This disaffiliation path, which is detailed in the UMC Book of Discipline, allows UMC churches to leave the denomination on the basis of intradenominational disagreements about human sexuality.

“Because of the current deep conflict within The United Methodist Church around issues of human sexuality, a local church shall have a limited right, under the provisions of this paragraph, to disaffiliate from the denomination for reasons of conscience regarding a change in the requirements and provisions of the Book of Discipline related to the practice of homosexuality or the ordination or marriage of self-avowed practicing homosexuals as resolved and adopted by the 2019 General Conference, or the actions or inactions of its annual conference related to these issues which follow.”

According to the document, churches may disaffiliate from the UMC if a two-thirds majority of members vote in favor of the move. Such churches must transfer any outstanding debts out of the UMC, and churches have the right to retain all their property as long as they transfer the assets out of the UMC’s name before finalizing the disaffiliation process.

As of two years ago, the UMC was down to 5.7 million members, roughly half its membership peak of 10.6 million members in 1970. Many UMC churches have fewer than 20 members.

One Methodist told The Sentinel that many UMC churches went under in 2020 and that some now have so few members that they are essentially defunct. Many of the denomination’s church buildings sit vacant as they await transfer out of the UMC or reclamation by a new UMC pastor.

UMC church buildings are held in trust by the denomination, meaning that every building must be used exclusively for the purposes of the UMC.

The decline is part of a larger trend of membership decrease within mainline Protestant denominations. The five other largest mainline Protestant denominations—the American Baptist Churches USA, the Episcopal Church, the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, the Presbyterian Church USA, and the United Church of Christ—have all likewise seen significant declines in membership over the last few decades. In 1987, the six largest denominations had 23 million American members. In 2020, they had 14.2 million.

The UMC nevertheless remains the second-largest Protestant denomination in the United States after the Southern Baptist Convention.