Congregations within the United Methodist Church continue to leave the mainline Protestant denomination, even after an official disaffiliation process expired at the end of last year. From 2019 to 2023, the UMC Book of Discipline included a measure known as Paragraph 2553, which created a process for disaffiliating from the denomination due to its years-long debate over whether to bless same-sex unions and ordain noncelibate homosexuals.