Delegates from United Methodist churches that voted to leave the denomination but have been blocked from disaffiliating spoke up in frustration on Tuesday at the annual meeting of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church.

A group of 44 churches that wanted to disaffiliate had sued the conference and appealed to the Alabama Supreme Court, which ruled it is a matter that must be decided by the church, not secular courts.

Churches that want to disaffiliate but have been prevented from doing so got no satisfaction this week as the conference met at First United Methodist Church of Montgomery.

The conference voted to ask the denomination’s Judicial Council for a ruling on procedures for how churches may be allowed to leave in the future. No church judicial ruling is expected before October.

“If I were to do everything you want me to do, only a few of you would be here,” said Bishop David Graves, head of the Alabama-West Florida Conference of the United Methodist Church, in his state of the conference address.

“I am tired of trying to talk people into staying in the United Methodist Church.”

He cautioned people out of leaving in anger. “When you leave something because you’re angry, you find the next thing to be angry about,” Graves said. “Anger turns to hate.”

No action on allowing churches to leave will be taken at least until the next meeting of the conference, scheduled for June next year, Bishop Graves said.

“This is going to be thrown out until another meeting, or another time, and I do feel that’s inappropriate,” said Andy Wendland, a delegate from Church Street United Methodist Church in Selma.

Some churches that were considering leaving were urged to stay in the denomination until after this year’s United Methodist General Conference, which concluded May 3 in Charlotte and voted to strike down church bans on same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ clergy.

“We were encouraged to remain, and we did,” Wendland said.

“This is not giving us the opportunity to exit and that’s really all we’re asking for,” he said. “We’re just asking to let us leave if we would like to. The board of trustees has the authority to probably allow us to do this. They have not shown the will to do that.”

Bishop Graves ruled any petitions regarding disaffiliation to be out of order until a Judicial Court ruling.

“These motions today and yesterday feel like and look like an attempt to squash this effort,” Wendland said.

“Just keep with your question, Andy,” Bishop Graves said.

“I guess I’m asking: This will not come up again till next year?” Wendland said.

“Probably, that’s correct,” Graves said.

“Is this a tactic that the conference is using to keep us either from disaffiliating at all, or till we die?” said Ed Stewart, a delegate from Highland Park United Methodist Church in Dothan. “Is this going to drag on year after year?”

Graves responded: “Sir, I cannot answer that.”

“There is not going to be a way for a church to leave until a declaratory statement from the judiciary committee?” asked Bill Ferguson of Echo United Methodist Church.

“That would be my recommendation,” Bishop Graves said.

“We have voted to leave, and were denied,” Ferguson said. “I’m just very disappointed that a conference cannot address this is in a more timely manner.”

The Alabama Supreme Court ruled on May 31 against 44 congregations in south Alabama and the Florida panhandle that filed a lawsuit against Graves and the conference.

The churches had argued that it was a matter of property issues and that a civil court could intervene. The Supreme Court said the churches must pursue the matter through the denomination’s own judicial system.

The lawsuit claimed Graves delayed the disaffiliation process and wouldn’t let the churches leave the denomination by the end of 2023.

In June 2023, the Alabama-West Florida Conference called for loyalty from leaders and tightened the requirements for disaffiliation.

The most recent disaffiliation vote was held on Nov. 12, when eight churches including one of Mobile’s largest, the 4,936-member Christ Church, disaffiliated. In 2022, what had been the state’s largest United Methodist church, the 7,000-member Frazer Memorial in Montgomery, disaffiliated and joined a more theologically conservative denomination, the Free Methodist Church.

The total number of churches disaffiliating from the Alabama-West Florida Conference was 248, but tightened rules prevented other churches from leaving. In the North Alabama Conference, 348 churches disaffiliated. Both conferences had more than 600 member churches before the disaffiliations.

Most of the churches that have disaffiliated have either become independent or joined more conservative denominations where traditional Christian bans on same-sex marriage are not up for debate, such as the new Global Methodist Church founded in 2022.

Unrelated to the disaffiliation debate, the Alabama-West Florida Conference voted Monday to close 10 congregations that had declining membership, including the historic Uniontown United Methodist Church in Perry County.