Bishop Karen Oliveto is retiring in a few months as a United Methodist bishop. Oliveto was emotional saying those words aloud. As the church's first openly gay bishop, her path was not always certain.

A quarter of Methodist congregations in the U.S. are leaving the United Methodist Church as one of the country's largest Protestant denominations wrestles with issues of sexuality and gender identity.

Not us," he says. "So when we say we're the church, we're referring to our Lord and not ourselves." The United Methodist congregation was founded in 1964, during boom times in Southern California.

NASHVILLE, Tenn. – The United Methodist Church, the largest mainline Protestant denomination in the U.S., lost about a quarter of its total churches between 2019 and 2023 due to ...

By Ruth Graham Ruth Graham writes about faith and religion, and visited a Methodist church in Southlake, Texas. With 17,000 members, White’s Chapel Methodist Church in Southlake, Texas ...

The United Methodist Church, one of the largest Protestant denominations in the U.S., has voted to repeal its ban on LGBTQ clergy as well as prohibitions on its ministers from officiating at same ...

But in the years that followed, some 7,600 U.S. conservative Methodist congregations located mostly in the South left the church over its lack of enforcement of the anti-LGBTQ policies.

Like thousands of others across the country who once belonged to the United Methodist Church, Tiger is no longer affiliated with the organization that has shaped much of his life. Born in a small ...

The 56-year-old pastor leading Des Moines' Grace United Methodist Church says he refuses to hide, especially as the denomination he serves comes under public scrutiny, drawing national attention ...