There are 123 United Methodist Affiliated schools, colleges, and universities. Keep in mind that this is including about a dozen college prep schools. Larger, more well-known United Methodist colleges include Boston University, Duke University, and American University.
As of 2005, there were 63 Annual Conferences in the United States. Since then at least three have merged with other conferences. There are 68 Annual Conferences (including provisional conferences) outside the United States.
according to Wikipedia, 12 million members.
As of 2005, there were 488 districts of The United Methodist Church within the United States. There are more districts outside the US.
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Two were active members of the Methodist Church. Three others attended Methodist Services with some frequency but did not join. One other professed to be a Methodist but attended his wife's Presbyterian Church.
Methodism has no prohibition re: Masonry. Many Masons are also Methodists.
The United Methodist Hymnal has 960 pages.
Episcopalians are a branch of the Christian church. Episcopalians are in a church that is part of the world wide Anglican Church, which includes the Church of England, the Church in Wales, and many other Anglican Christian churches around the world, especially in Africa.
Following the Civil War, the Baptists had the most black members, next came the Methodists, and the Presbyterians came in a distant third. A few years after the Civil War ended, most of the black Baptist Churches in the Southern Baptist Convention pulled out and formed a different group. Many different black Baptist denominations exist. A few Methodist Churches remained with the Methodist Episcopal Church, South but many went with the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Other black Methodist Churches exist. The Second Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Black organization.
Not currently. There is an active movement among many people in at least the United Methodist Church to change that stance.
The United Methodist Church is the largest Methodist denomination. In 2005, there were 7.9 million laypersons, as reported by General Council on Finance and Administration of The United Methodist Church. The February 2008 U.S. Religious Landscape Survey conducted by The Pew Forum on Religion & Public Life found that 5.4% of Americans are of the mainline Methodist tradition (this designation would include persons who identified themselves as Methodist or as a member of a particular Methodist denomination). This percentage does not include Methodists who are not considered mainline, such as the Free Methodist Church, a church of the Wesleyan movement, or a self-identified "evangelical Methodist." 5.1% of Americans are United Methodist. 0.6% of all Americans identify as Methodist in the Historically Black Tradition. Altogether, 6.2% of the adult population are Methodist (of all kinds). This composes 12.1% of all Protestants.
No. According to the official policy of the church, United Methodist pastors are not allowed to celebrate unions of same gender couples. Such rites are not allowed in United Methodist churches or on church property. Were a United Methodist pastor to marry a lesbian couple s/he would be in danger of being brought up on charges that could result in the severing of his/her connection to the conference. They could be defrocked. However, several have done so in protest. The results often end in defrocking. The United Methodist Church has had internal debate on homosexuality since at least 1972. To date, while homosexual persons are individuals of sacred worth, the practice of homosexuality is incompatible with Christian teaching. Many within the denomination are working to change this stance. The Church is not of one mind on this issue.
As of 2009 there were approximately 6,060,000 baptized members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints (the "Mormon" church) in the United States.
You haven't given enough information for your question to be answered. There are many "First" United Methodist Churches. Often there's one per town/city. There are also many "Aldersgate" United Methodist Churches, though "First" is by far the most common name. Aldersgate is a street in London, England where John Wesley's heart was "strangely warmed." John Wesley began the Methodist movement within the Anglican Church, which eventually became it's own church. From the information you've given, the only difference is the name. However, in any town where two churches of these names exist, you would be able to draw any number of comparisons such as worship attendance, worship style, theological hallmarks, and etc. You'd be better off searching for websites for each church or calling each church directly to find out the differences you're interested in.
Although the Methodist church does not encourage or support divorce, it will perform marriages of people who had divorced another person.
Many Methodists use the King James Version. The United Methodist Church does not prescribe any particular version of the Bible and, as far as I know, neither does any other Methodist denomination.