The New England Conference of Methodist churches has allowed same sex marriages and gay clergy since 2016 and the vote this week in St. Louis by international delegates to strengthen the church’s ban on both has stirred debate over a possible split in the church. At the United Methodist Church in East Greenwich Sunday, the entire service, from the opening greeting to the prayers of the congregants, focused on the vote in St. Louis. Rev. Bill Trench began by reaffirming his support of LGBTQ clergy and same sex marriages, in spite church leaders’ vote to strengthen the ban and increase penalties for those clergy violate it.

In his sermon, he pulled from the Book of Luke to speak about demons.

“The demon causes him to stumble and throws him to the ground, and sometimes causes him to foam at the mouth. That is what our demons do to us. So what are the demons, what are the demons for us? Racism, greed, selfishness, xenophobia, homophobia,” Trench said.

Trench said his church decided to allow same-sex weddings five years ago. And many congregations in New England have done the same. Speaking after his sermon, Trench said he was surprised, and heartbroken, by the vote.

“I’ve been a United Methodist minister for more than 45 years. This has been the issue in the church over those years.” He continued, “The church that I joined was open, it was moving forward. I had no doubt, when I was ordained, that we would move beyond this.”

But the church is still deeply divided on how to approach LGBTQ clergy and marriages, with delegates split 438 to 384 in favor of strengthening the church’s ban. Some members of his congregation, like Don Volino, worry that traditionalist factions are driving younger Methodists away from the church.

“When you look at the statistics, three out of four millennials are in favor of changing and being more open. That tells the future of the church,” Volino said. “And if the old traditionalists are going to maintain their position, then they’re going to chase younger families and young people away from the more conservative church.”

In the wake of the vote, Methodists congregations are figuring out how they want to move forward.

If the new rules stand up to a judicial review, they’ll go into effect in January of 2020. And Trench thinks many bishops and clergy will continue to defy the church’s rules – potentially with major consequences for the future of the church.

“I think we’re going to build something new. Either the traditionalists are going to leave and form a new denomination, or the centrists and the progressives are going to form a new denomination. It’s hard to see all of us staying together,” Trench said.

Talk of a split, or schism, in the Methodist church was building before last week’s meeting. Rev. John Marshall is a Connecticut pastor who says he was relieved that the Traditional Plan passed. He says conservative church leaders had been talking about breaking away from the church if delegates voted to open the church to gay clergy and marriages.

Marshall explained, “The more traditional people actually had the feeling that if that had passed, they would have had to leave the united Methodist church.”

It’s not just about gay marriage, Marshall added. The specifics of the disagreement over LGBTQ inclusion point to more deeply-seated divides.

“Underlying that we have strong differences of opinion related to how we view the scriptures, who Jesus really is, and the nature of the church,” Marshall said. “And I think that because we disagree on some of those more fundamental issues, it’s harder for us to come to an agreement on something like human sexuality.”

This isn’t the first issue to challenge the unity of the Methodist church. The church divided in 1830 over whether lay people should have a voice in church leadership. And split again in 1844 over the issue of slavery.

When New England Methodists meet in June for their annual convention, the future of the church is sure to be up for debate. Trench says he’s already considering splitting from the church:

“Would I leave the United Methodist Church as it now exists? Possibly, for a new Methodist church. Would I really seek out a new denomination? No.”

After the service in East Greenwich, parishioners talked about the decision and the future of their church. For some, the day was an emotional one. Marilyn Robinson was near tears.

 “I think it’s too bad that there’s controversy,” Robinson said. “I wish we could all be one.”