United Methodist Church negotiates a likely split over LGBTQ issues
The United Methodist Church has long been riven by bitter divisions between its U.S. and international congregations over whether to allow same-sex marriage and ordain gay clergy.
Now it appears the church - whose 7 million U.S. members make it the nation's second-largest Protestant denomination - is heading for a permanent split.
On Friday its leaders announced a plan that would lift the LGBTQ restrictions and create a new, more conservative denomination for any congregations that wish to leave. The new denomination, which has yet to be named, would be free to make its own rules.
The bishops who wrote the plan released a statement
