By Loretta Fulton

By the end of the day Saturday, a prayer offered by Bishop Ruben Saenz had been answered.

He opened a United Methodist Unifying Conference Saturday morning at the Abilene Convention Center with a prayer that included thanksgivings and petitions. 

“We pray for unity in our purpose,” he said in the opening prayer.

That prayer apparently was answered as the delegates to the conference were harmonious and in agreement about their path forward. The Unifying Conference was the first gathering of the Horizon Texas Conference that was formed from the former Northwest Texas Conference, Central Texas Conference, and North Texas Conference. 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, and its approval was required to establish the new conference. Saenz will serve as bishop of the Horizon Texas Conference when it officially comes into being on Jan. 1, 2025. 

Participants in the United Methodist Church’s Unifying Conference sit on the stage at the Abilene Convention Center. The conference convened Saturday, Sept. 28, as the first gathering of the Horizon Texas Conference, made up of the former Northwest Texas Conference, Central Texas Conference, and North Texas Conference. Photo by Loretta Fulton

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. 

But Saturday’s Unifying Conference, with the theme “Journey to the Horizon,” was about looking ahead, not backward. More than 1,000 delegates and guests gathered at the convention center for a day of fellowship, worship, and passing motions regarding the structure and financial aspects of the new conference. 

Volunteers man an information desk Saturday, Sept. 28, for a meeting of the new Horizon Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church. Photo by Loretta Fulton

Among the guest speakers was Dr Sandra Harper, president of United Methodist-affiliated McMurry University. She noted that the university’s first president, Dr. J.W. Hunt, was pastor at St. Paul UMC and that the first four presidents of McMurry were Methodist ministers. To add to that legacy, four UMC bishops are graduates of McMurry. 

McMurry celebrated its centennial in 2023 and this year set a record with 3,183 students enrolled. Not all of those students are on campus, with about 1,900 enrolled in the university’s Dual Credit Academy for high school students. Others are enrolled in online programs.

Dr. Sandra Harper

Harper, who will retire at the end of December, also noted the strong emphasis that the Methodist Church has always placed on higher education. She pledged that McMurry would continue in that tradition. Harper will be succeeded in January by Dr. Lynne Murray, current president of another UMC-affiliated liberal arts school, Baker University, in Kansas.

“McMurry is dedicated to educating servant leaders of the 21st century,” Harper said.

Loretta Fulton is creator and editor of Spirit of Abilene