Methodist Episcopal Church, South and South and was criticized for holding slaves. The 1844 General Conference voted to suspend Bishop Andrew from exercising his episcopal office until he gave up the slaves. Southern delegates to the conference disputed the authority of a General Conference to discipline bishops. The cultural differences that had divided the nation during the mid-19th century were also dividing the Methodist Episcopal Church. The 1844 dispute led Methodists in the South to break off and form a separate denomination, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South (MEC,S). The statistics for 1859 showed the MEC,S had as enrolled members some 511,601 whites and 197,000
United Episcopal Church of North America Common Prayer is permitted. The changes in the mainline denominations that it and other continuing churches object to include the acceptance of lax policies on the authority of Scripture, divorce, abortion, the ordination of women, and changes to the theology of the Book of Common Prayer. They also object to more recent innovations such as the ordination of openly homosexual clergy, but these were not at issue when they broke with the Episcopal Church. The origins of the United Episcopal Church of North America lie with the Congress of St. Louis in September 1977, and with Charles D. D. Doren,