By Loretta Fulton

Delegates from three United Methodist Church conferences will convene in Abilene Sept. 27-28 to vote on melding into one new conference.

Delegates to the Unifying Conference are expected to approve forming the Horizon Texas Conference from the former Northwest Texas Conference, Central Texas Conference, and North Texas Conference. If delegates vote in the affirmative, the new conference will become official on Jan. 1, 2025. Bishop Ruben Saenz, current bishop of both the Central and North Texas conferences, will become bishop of the Horizon Texas Conference.

The actual conference will begin at 9:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 28, at the Abilene Convention Center, but other events are scheduled to accompany the Unifying Conference. A welcome reception will be hosted by McMurry University at 7 p.m. Friday, Sept. 27, in the Garrison United Methodist Campus Center. A clergy retreat is scheduled for Thursday and Friday and a laity gathering is set for Friday. Both will be held at St. Paul United Methodist Church. 

A website for the Horizon Texas Conference carries the following message:

“We look forward to gathering clergy and laity from across the Central, North and Northwest Texas Annual Conferences of The United Methodist Church for this historic conference, which will unify us in shared fellowship and mission.” 

The formation of the new conference was approved at a meeting of the South Central Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church in July in Rogers, Arkansas. The South Central Jurisdiction covers several states, including Texas. Jurisdictional approval was needed to set boundaries for new conferences.

The entire United Methodist Church is restructuring following the launch on May 1, 2022, of the Global Methodist Church. The new branch of Methodism is much more conservative than the mainstream United Methodist Church and outlaws same-sex marriages and the ordination of gays and lesbians. The majority of the former United Methodist congregations in the Northwest Texas Conference, which includes Abilene, disaffiliated from the UMC and joined the Global Methodist Church. Only 32 UMC congregations remain within the boundaries of the Northwest Texas Conference, with two being in Abilene–St. Paul and St. James. 

In May delegates to the United Methodist Church’s General Conference in Charlotte, North Carolina, removed the last barriers to full equality of LGBTQ+ members in the life of the church.

The delegates repealed a 52-year-old declaration that the practice of homosexuality is “incompatible with Christian teaching.” The next day, they voted to eliminate a passage in their Book of Discipline, or church law, that states: “Ceremonies that celebrate homosexual unions shall not be conducted by our ministers and shall not be conducted in our churches.”

The 115th and final annual meeting of the Northwest Texas Conference was held in Lubbock in May. A report from the conference’s communications office stated:

“The Northwest Texas Conference is proud of its history and the ministry it has been able to do together as United Methodists. The churches and pastors look forward to this new season of ministry and continue providing a United Methodist presence to the northwest parts of Texas. The 32 remaining churches are ready to move toward where God is calling them in this next season of 100+ years of ministry.”

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene