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Shopping Guide News Wednesday, July 3, 2024
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Fletchers Lake Church marks one-year anniversary of leaving United Methodist denomination Text and Photos By LEAH SANDER Staff Writer It’s been one year since Fletchers Lake Church disaffiliated from the United Methodist denomination. Church congregants said it’s been a positive change. July 3, 2023, was the official date of the congregation at 9810 CR 475W, Kewanna, exiting the UMC. Members voted earlier in
2023 for the move, said Pastor Dave Sommers. The majority of the members had to be “present (and) vote in favor of leaving,” explained Sommers, who wasn’t allowed by the UMC to be at the church building for the vote. “We voted 5-0, that was what our members were at the time,” he said. “We had a lot more people attending, but that was the actual membership.” “After the vote, everybody I
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NOW INDEPENDENT — Fletchers Lake Church is marking one-year of disaffiliating from the United Methodist Church. Shown in the church building at 9810 CR 475W, Kewanna, are congregant and church historian, Betty Muinzer, left, and Pastor Dave Sommers.
FLETCHERS LAKE CHURCH — The outside of the church building is shown.
guess was applauding,” added Sommers. “We were standing up for the Bible and what it stood for.” Sommers, who’s been pastor at Fletchers Lake since November 1991, said people have opted to leave the UMC because of its stance on sexuality: allowing clergy to perform same-sex marriages and ordaining homo-
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SPRUCED UP — The church was able to pay to get cemetery tombstones straightened with some extra money it had thanks to not having to pay dues to the UMC anymore.
sexual clergy. He noted “the majority of (Fulton County area UMC churches) chose to disaffiliate.” “I feel like we’ve done the right thing,” said congregant Betty Muinzer, who’s attended Fletchers Lake since she was a child. She acts as the histo-
rian for the church and is descended from two of the trustees of it at the time the building was constructed in 1896: Harry Lemon and James Callahan. After the vote, the church had to pay over $18,000 to the UMC to cover pensions of retired Methodist pastors. Continued on page 2
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