Conservatives who left over the past two years - about a fourth of all United Methodist churches - cited this anticipated change as reason for their departure.

United Methodists lifted a 40-year ban on gay clergy Wednesday in a major step toward greater LGBTQ+ inclusion in the nation’s largest mainline Protestant denomination. The vote to remove the ban was the latest decision by the United Methodist Church's top legislative assembly here this week toward rolling back what many progressive and centrists Methodists view as overly restrictive policies.

United Methodist delegates repealed their church’s longstanding ban on LGBTQ clergy with no debate on Wednesday, removing a rule forbidding “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from being ordained or appointed as ministers.

The role of LGBT people has divided the denomination for decades.

On the second day of the final week of the UMC General Conference in Charlotte, delegates passed petitions seeking to remove anti-LGBTQ+ restrictions.

The United Methodist Church voted Wednesday to allow LGBTQ clergy to serve in the church, reversing a 40-year ban. The church had forbidden "self-avowed homosexuals" from being ordained or appointed as clergy members.