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
Trinity Episcopal Church (Winchester, Tennessee) The building was completed in 1874. Through its history, Trinity has experienced fluctuations in membership, and has at times fallen below the size threshold necessary to be a recognized parish. In 2008, Trinity's priest and a number of members of the congregation left the Episcopal Church to form Christ the King Anglican Church, affiliated with the Convocation of Anglicans in North America under the ecclesiastical authority of the Church of Nigeria. The group was one of several that left the Episcopal Church after the Diocese of Tennessee's convention in 2006 because of objections to the actions of Episcopal leadership, particularly