Navigating the Waters
With Grace and Respect
This information is found at the Texas Annual Conference website. Please follow the link at the bottom of the page for the full content of the Navigating the Waters page.
Friends,
I am sure by now you realize that we are in historic times as the United Methodist Church and the Texas Annual Conference. The decision not to hold a General Conference in 2022 has resulted in a number of responses that call for clarity in navigating the waters.
Several churches in our Annual Conference and in other Annual Conferences have already begun the process of discernment to disaffiliate from the United Methodist Church. This had begun to a lesser extent a couple of years ago and I am grateful to the Board of Trustees and the members of the Texas Annual Conference for providing a clear and fair path for those congregations through the Principles of Disaffiliation adopted at our 2020 Session of the Texas Annual Conference.
The announcement of the May 1, 2022 launch of the Global Methodist Church has generated increased interest in disaffiliating to this new denomination. There are two resolutions that have been submitted for consideration at the 2022 session of the Texas Annual Conference related to disaffiliation as an Annual Conference. One resolution seeks to raise the approval threshold to 2/3 for decisions related to disaffiliation. Another resolution seeks to hold a special session of the Texas Annual Conference later this year to discern the possibility of disaffiliating as an Annual Conference.
On this landing page you’ll find updated information as to current events that impact the Texas Annual Conference, the approved process in the Texas Annual Conference for local churches who are discerning disaffiliation, and information related to the discernment of disaffiliation of the Texas Annual Conference from the United Methodist Church. This webpage is offered in an effort to provide fair, comprehensive, clear, and transparent information on these matters before us as the Texas Annual Conference.
May we navigate these waters with the commitment to give evidence of our connection to Christ even as Jesus declared in John 13:35, “By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”
Grace & Peace,
Bishop Scott J. Jones