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But reportedly Foundry's new policy to honor same sex couple will be on the agenda of the denomination's biannual meeting Council of Bishops next month. Late in April, the quadrennial governing General Conference also will meet. Thanks to the growing numbers of delegates from Africa, where United Methodism is growing, and fewer delegates from shrinking liberal regions in the U.S., the denomination almost certainly will reaffirm its official disapproval of same-sex rites and perhaps will tighten the rules even further.

In the now firmly liberal Episcopal Church, conservative congregations are departing, many of them seeking affiliation with overseas orthodox Anglicans. The opposite may become true in The United Methodist Church, 30 percent of whose membership is now outside the U.S.

Will liberal congregations like Foundry Church want to remain in an increasingly conservative denomination more and more governed by traditionalist Nigerians and Congolese and U.S. southerners? Like conservative Episcopalians, the convictions of liberal United Methodists eventually may lead them elsewhere.

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