To begin let me say this, in the United Methodist Church there is no constitutional provisions in our Book of Discipline that allows an annual conference to vote whether to leave the denomination. No Division, Section, or Article in the Constitution of The United Methodist Church has directly established or assigned such authority to the annual conference. On January 3, 2020, a group of United Methodists announced that they had unanimously reached an agreement for separating The United Methodist Church into different denominations as a way to resolve the disputes and dilemmas involving human sexuality. They described their agreement as a “protocol” for the action that they envisioned. Several weeks later, the group and their allies released a package of legislative proposals for implementing the so-called “protocol.” Although it was intended to be a petition to the 2020 General Conference, the package came too late for submission to the General Conference. However, under an option in c...