News

The mission/WIG of the Central Texas Conference (CTC) of Making Disciples of Jesus Christ for the Transformation of the World Remains the Focus and Priority Council of Bishops Expected to Name CTC Episcopal Coverage This Summer Coverage Bishop to Lead CTC Throughout 2022 Bishop Lowry Confident the CTC and the Next Bishop to be Blessed by the Vision and Faithfulness Each Brings May 7, 2021 Bishop Mike Lowry, episcopal leader of the Central Texas Conference of The United Methodist ...

COB Calls a Special, Online Session of General Conference for May 8, 2021 Feb. 25, 2021 The Commission on the General Conference has announced its decision to further postpone the 2020 General Conference of The United Methodist Church until late summer 2022. The decision, which was reached during the Commission’s meeting on Feb. 20, is due to the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic, its effect on the safety of mass gatherings and global travel and the lack of reliable technology available to all of the ...

FEMA adds 31 Texas Counties to Individual Assistance Eligibility List – Website Makes it Easy to Determine if You Are Eligible. Feb. 24, 2021 Late on Tuesday (Feb. 23), the Federal Emergency Management Agency (FEMA) announced that Texas homeowners and renters in 31 additional counties who suffered damage from last week’s winter storm may now apply for Individual Disaster Assistance. This brings the number of counties in Texas in which individuals are eligible to apply for FEMA assistance to 108 ...

Emergency Financial Assistance from UMCOR is On the Way. Feb. 19, 2021 Mrs. Betty Alexander (left), executive assistant to Bishop Mike Lowry witnesses Bishop Lowry (right) signing the letter to UMCOR officially requesting an emergency relief grant to the Central Texas Conference. The UMCOR Grant will release as much as $10K is emergency financial assistance to the conference. Bishop Lowry has officially requested an emergency relief grant from the United Methodist Committee on Relief (...

Dr. Randy Wild to give retirement another try after rejoining the Cabinet as East DS in 2019 Feb. 7, 2021 Bishop Mike Lowry, episcopal leader of the Central Texas Conference of The United Methodist Church, has announced that Rev. Philip Rhodes will be appointed as the Superintendent of the East District Area of the Central Texas Conference effective July 1. Dr. Randy Wild, the East District Area’s current superintendent, will (again) retire from active ministry on July 1.   On Jan. 1, changes ...

The Forward to a New Spring Initiative Continues to Bring Changes & New Opportunities Feb. 2, 2021 When the Forward to a New Spring plan was officially adopted by the 2020 Annual Conference, the wheels of change related to the structure of the conference were put into motion. On Monday, Feb. 1, one of those changes became official as Dr. Lisa Neslony and Rev. Brad Brittain officially moved into their appointments as the senior pastor of St. John the Apostle and St. Barnabas UMCs respectively. ...

We, here at the Central Texas Conference Service Center wish you and your family a very Happy and Holy Christmas and New Year, we join you in prayer for all of our local churches ministries as we journey forward into 2021 and beyond. The Conference Service Center will be closed for the Christmas and New Year’s holidays beginning Dec. 24. Regular business hours will resume on Monday, Jan. 4.

Assistant DSs, Discipleship Coaches and Student Discipleship Coordinators for each District Area announced. Teams officially begin duties Jan. 1, 2021. Nov. 23, 2020 When the Forward to a New Spring initiative was adopted by the Annual Conference in October, the wheels of change were set in motion to reimagine and restructure conference resources to best energize and equip the local churches of the Central Texas Conference. Forward to a New Spring is not a new direction for the Central Texas ...

Prayers and Patience are What's Needed Now Aug. 26, 5:15 p.m. As Hurricane Laura takes aim on the Louisiana/Texas coastline with what is projected to be a devastating storm surge, many of the good people of the Central Texas Conference are already asking “what can we do to help?” The immediate answer is to pray and hold tight until the areas of need are revealed once the storm passes and proper damage assessments can be completed. The CTC disaster response team has been, is and will continue to ...

Churches are exempt from orders, but CTC Guidelines continue to require face masks be worn in church buildings. July 2, 2020 Texas Governor Greg Abbott has issued a new Executive Order requiring the wearing of a face covering over the nose and mouth in public spaces in all Texas counties with 20 or more positive COVID-19 cases. There are a few exceptions to this order, including “any person who is actively providing or obtaining access to religious worship.” The Governor also issued a ...

Churches are exempt from orders, but face masks are still required in CTC church buildings during in-person worship as per CTC Guidelines. June 26, 2020 Several new executive orders have been issued requiring the wearing of face masks and limiting certain business activities in the last 24-36 hours by state, county and city officials in response to the dramatic rise in confirmed cases of COVID-19 in many areas across Texas and the increasing pressure being put on the state’s hospital system. At ...

United Methodist Church leaders will launch a plan of action to galvanize church members and others to actively stand against racism in the wake of the death of George Floyd and protests across the U.S.    The “Dismantling Racism: Pressing on to Freedom” initiative is a multi-level effort throughout the church to initiate a sustained and coordinated effort to dismantle racism and promote collective action to work toward racial justice. The church-wide effort will kick off Friday, June 19, to ...

June 16, 2020 The five jurisdictional United Methodist Volunteers in Mission (UMVIM) offices are entering a new phase of collaboration with a new website. The website address, www.umvim.org, will include resources from all five jurisdictions in one place. Some of those resources will be consistent across the jurisdictions and some will be specific for each.   For many years, each jurisdictional UMVIM office operated separately, featuring its own website and information. This new website will ease the ...

June 10, 2020 The past few weeks since the death of George Floyd at the hands of police officers in Minneapolis, Minn., have left many in our country hurt, outraged and downtrodden. Several United Methodist bishops have issued statements against systemic racism and begun to take steps to eradicate it from our society. Last week, via his blog and a powerful video message, Bishop Lowry asserted that it is time for all people called Christian to move beyond praying and into action against racism.  ...

On Friday, June 5, the Central Texas Conference Inclusiveness Umbrella Team released the following statement to the people of the Central Texas Conference and Christians everywhere. A Statement to the churches and people of the Central Texas Conference From the Central Texas Conference Inclusiveness Umbrella Team The senseless death of George Floyd was horrific and highlights in everyone’s consciousness that racism is not a thing of the past. His death, and the consequent protests speak to the ...

SCJ Bishops Lowry, Bledsoe and McKee will continue to serve current episcopal areas through South Central Jurisdictional Conference rescheduled for Nov. 10-12, 2021. Bishop Robert Farr, president of the SCJ College of Bishops, announced in a letter to the chairs of conference episcopacy committees that the three bishops who were scheduled to retire effective Sept. 1, 2020 will continue as the episcopal leaders of their respective conferences through the postponed SCJ Conference in November 2021....

Quadrennial Meeting to convene Aug. 29 – Sept. 7, 2021 in Minneapolis; Commission to explore use of new technologies to allow for increased full participation. The Commission on the General Conference has announced new dates for the postponed 2020 General Conference  The quadrennial legislative event will take place on August 29 - September 7, 2021, at the Minneapolis Convention Center in Minneapolis, Minn.    "We're grateful that we were able to secure new dates while keeping the site of ...

Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey, president, UMC Council of Bishops, announced that postponed 2020 Jurisdictional Conferences in the U.S. will be rescheduled for Nov. 10-12, 2021. Times, Locations and other information for the South Central Jurisdictional Conference will be announced at a later date. The following is the official Call for the Postponed 2020 Jurisdictional Conferences released May 26 by Bishop Harvey (bold added for emphasis) Grace and peace to you from God, our Creator, and the ...

On March 18, Glen Lake Camp followed the guidelines of the CDC and Texas DSHS to cancel guest groups and close the campus. At that time plans for the camp’s summer program were still in full effect. However, the COVID-19 pandemic has not subsided as quickly as hoped. As such, Glen Lake Camp has made the difficult decision to cancel all regular summer camp programming for the Summer 2020 season.   The staff leadership and Board of Directors explored all possibilities in their efforts to develop ...

Just in time for Easter, popular hymn writer Carolyn Winfrey Gillette has written a new hymn specifically for a season in which the Church and its members are dealing with the coronavirus.   "This new hymn," Mrs. Gillette writes, "is a prayer to be used in Easter 2020 worship services, while most churches are closed and people are remaining in their homes because of the pandemic. It can be used for online worship or in online written communications from a church to its members."   The prayer, ...