The Texas Annual Conference of the

United Methodist Church The United Methodist Church (UMC) is a worldwide mainline Protestant Christian denomination, denomination based in the United States, and a major part of Methodism. In the 19th century, its main predecessor, the Methodist Episcopal Church, was ...

is the regional body of congregations and ministries in East Texas, from

Texarkana The Texarkana metropolitan statistical area (MSA), as defined by the United States Office of Management and Budget, is a two-county region anchored by the Twin cities (geographical proximity), twin cities of Texarkana, Texas (population 37,33 ...

west to approximately Cedar Creek Lake in the north, Thorndale in the west, and Bay City in the southwest and down to the Gulf Coast and back east to the

Louisiana Louisiana ( ; ; ) is a state in the Deep South and South Central regions of the United States. It borders Texas to the west, Arkansas to the north, and Mississippi to the east. Of the 50 U.S. states, it ranks 31st in area and 25 ...

border. It is headquartered in

Houston, Texas Houston ( ) is the List of cities in Texas by population, most populous city in the U.S. state of Texas and in the Southern United States. Located in Southeast Texas near Galveston Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, it is the county seat, seat of ...

with

Bishop A bishop is an ordained member of the clergy who is entrusted with a position of Episcopal polity, authority and oversight in a religious institution. In Christianity, bishops are normally responsible for the governance and administration of di ...

Cynthia Fierro Harvey Cynthia Fierro Harvey (born 1959) is an American bishop in the United Methodist Church and served as president of its Council of Bishops. She is the first Hispanic woman to lead the Council of Bishops. Harvey is the Resident Bishop of the Texa ...

currently serving as the presiding

. The Texas Annual Conference is also unofficially referred to as "the Houston Area of The United Methodist Church". The Texas Annual Conference is the largest Annual Conference in the Church's South Central Jurisdiction and the third largest in the United Methodist denomination. The Texas Annual Conference was the original Annual Conference in Texas, which now contains 6 Annual Conferences that were carved out of the original Texas Conference. The

State of Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...

now has 5 geographical and 1 Spanish language conference. The jurisdiction of the Spanish language Conference, the Rio Grande Conference, covers the entire State of Texas and portions of New Mexico. The Texas Annual Conference contains roughly 598 churches, 8

Wesley Foundation {{methodism A Wesley Foundation is a United Methodist campus ministry sponsored in full or in part (depending on the congregation) by the United Methodist Church on a non-church owned and operated campus. Wesley Foundations claim ancestry in the ...

s, 1 higher education institution and many other ministries and outreaches.

Districts of the Texas Annual Conference

The Texas Conference is divided into 5 districts that cover subdivided areas of the conference territory. Districts are the United Methodist equivalent of a

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

diocese In Ecclesiastical polity, church governance, a diocese or bishopric is the ecclesiastical district under the jurisdiction of a bishop. History In the later organization of the Roman Empire, the increasingly subdivided Roman province, prov ...

. McMahan Chapel, the oldest Protestant church in Texas and one of the oldest Protestant congregations west of the Mississippi River, is located in the Eastern District and is celebrated each year with an annual Conference wide worship service and gathering, McMahon Chapel Day . The original Methodist missionary to what was then the Mexican territory of Texas, the Rev. Littleton Fowler, is buried under the pulpit of McMahon's Chapel. The Rev. Sumner Bacon, the first Presbyterian missionary to Texas, is buried in the nearby Chapel Hill United Methodist Church cemetery. District Superintendents (commonly referred to as a "DS") supervise each district. The superintendents serve for six years but they can serve for as long as eight if the presiding Bishop feels that there are exceptional reasons to do so. A superintendent may serve up to 12 years in total during the course of their ministry, and there are no exceptions allowed to this rule. Each of the five districts coordinate, supervise, and support all of the work of the Church within its geographical boundaries. The West District in the Texas Annual Conference is currently the highest apportionment paying District in the entire United Methodist denomination. The southern and eastern districts of the Annual Conference were deeply affected by the damage of

Hurricane Ike Hurricane Ike () was a powerful tropical cyclone that swept through portions of the Greater Antilles and Northern America in September 2008, wreaking havoc on infrastructure and agriculture, particularly in Cuba and Texas. Ike took a sim ...

in the Fall of 2008, with several coastal congregations being wiped out completely.

References

{{reflist

External links

The Texas Annual Conference websiteTexas Annual Conference
on United Methodist Insight United Methodist Annual Conferences