The United Methodist Church has lost over one million members over the latest rules on homosexuality and premarital sex. The United Methodist Church based in Ivory Coast, West Africa announced the denomination following delegates’ repeal of their church’s ban on LGBTQ clergy erasing a rule banning “self-avowed practising homosexuals” from being appointed as ministers.

During the General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, last month, delegates voted 692-51 for the United Methodist Church to support the ban and related penalties amid protests.

Many conservatives who previously upheld the ban left the denomination in recent years and the General Conference has moved in a progressive direction.

The change doesn’t affirm LGBTQ clergy but it means the church no longer forbids them. On May 28, the Ivory Coast division stated that they voted to disaffiliate “for reasons of conscience before God and His word, the supreme authority in matters of faith in life.”

The division further accused the United Methodist Church of distancing “itself from Holy Scriptures” and “sacrificing its honorability and integrity to honour the LGBT”.

They added that the General Conference was not based on any biblical and disciplinary values.” The Ivory Coast had been the domination’s largest jurisdiction overseas with over 1.2 million members, according to reports.