United Methodists Merge Two Georgia Conferences After Years of Departures
The United Methodist Church's Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference voted 291 to 0 on August 12 to merge the North Georgia and South Georgia annual conferences into a single Georgia Conference, set to officially launch January 1, 2027, with more than 215,000 members and 549 affiliated congregations. The two individual conferences had already approved the merger in June. North Georgia alone had counted nearly 197,000 members and 962 clergy on its own.
The consolidation follows years of financial strain after the denomination lost roughly 7,600 churches nationwide between 2019 and 2023 amid a schism over LGBTQ policy, with most departing congregations joining the newly formed Global Methodist Church. Bishop Robin Dease framed the merger as more than an administrative fix, praying it would "deepen our commitment, widen our welcome, and strengthen our ministries." A similar consolidation combined three Texas conferences into the Horizon Texas Conference in 2025.
