United Methodist delegates at the church’s national conference on Wednesday repealed a longstanding prohibition on gay clergy.

The move comes as the church has lost about a quarter of its U.S. congregations over the past five years, the vast majority of which made the decision to leave based on the church’s refusal to enforce its prohibition against LGBT clergy and same-sex marriages, according to the Associated Press. In all, more than 7,600 U.S. churches have left the denomination since 2019.

Delegates at the church’s General Conference overwhelmingly approved the change in a 692-51 vote. While the amendment to the church’s policies does not mandate that individual churches must hire LGBT individuals, it did strike language banning “self-avowed practicing homosexuals” from holding clergy positions.

The United Methodist conference-goers also voted to approve a measure preventing administrators from punishing clergy who either perform a same-sex marriage or refuse to do so, according to the AP. Moreover, conference delegates voted to strike wording in the church’s principles describing the “practice of homosexuality” as “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The church now defines marriage as being between “two people of faith” rather than between a man and a woman, nullifying a vote decided at the church’s general conference in 1972.

Between 2019 and 2023, the United Methodist Church offered a window for congregations to leave and keep their properties under generally favorable terms, according to the AP.

In 2023 alone, 5,641 congregations left the United Methodist Church, with many joining the more conservative Global Methodist Church and others remaining independent from a larger organization, the AP reported. Last year’s exodus came after each of the United Methodist jurisdictions in the United States approved measures promoting changes to the church to create bodies in which “LGBTQIA+ people will be protected, affirmed, and empowered.”

After the vote on Wednesday, an LGBT gathering of about 100 people came together outside the convention center to play drums, sing songs, and celebrate the church’s new direction while wearing rainbow-colored outfits.

While the United Methodist Church had been the third-largest Christian denomination in the U.S., the consistent decline in its membership may accelerate after Wednesday’s votes. The organization also has about 4.6 million members in countries outside the U.S.