wfn.org | Consecrate Seven Bishops

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"UNITED METHODIST DAILY NEWS" by SUSAN PEEK on Aug. 11, 1991 at 13:58 Eastern,
about FULL TEXT RELEASES FROM UNITED METHODIST NEWS SERVICE (3071 notes).

Note 3067 by UMNS on July 22, 1996 at 16:06 Eastern (2731 characters).

SEARCH: Southeastern, bishops, jurisdiction, Kammerer, first
woman, merger, conference

Produced by United Methodist News Service, official news agency of
the United Methodist Church, with offices in Nashville, Tenn., New
York, and Washington.

CONTACT:  Joretta Purdue                       353(15-21SE){3067} 
          Washington, D.C.  (202) 546-8722           July 22, 1996

Southeastern Jurisdiction consecrates
seven bishops, approves conference merger

     LAKE JUNALUSKA, N.C. (UMNS) -- Consecration of seven new
bishops, including the first woman elected to the episcopacy by
the Southeastern Jurisdiction of the United Methodist Church, 
concluded the jurisdiction's quadrennial meeting here July 19.
     The Rev. Charlene Payne Kammerer, 48, senior pastor of a
Jacksonville, Fla., United Methodist church was elected bishop on
July 17 and later was assigned to the denomination's Charlotte
(N.C.) Area.
     In the United Methodist Church, which elected its first
female bishop in 1980, a total of eight women had been selected
for the episcopacy prior to the 1996 elections.
     Throughout the denomination's five U.S. jurisdictions, the
bishops begin presiding in their assigned areas on Sept. 1.
     The Southeastern Jurisdiction consists of 16 annual
(regional) conferences with approximately 2.9 million members,
making it the largest of the church's five U.S. jurisdictions. 
Delegates to the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference approved
the proposed merger of the Louisville and Kentucky conferences
into one that will be called the Kentucky Conference. The uniting
conference will be held in Lexington, Ky., August 18.
     A Methodist conference was organized in Kentucky in 1821 but
split into eastern and western conferences in 1846 because of the
difficulty of transportation between the two areas.
     Among other items of business the jurisdiction passed a
resolution condemning the arson of church buildings and
encouraging support for such congregations including monetary
support through the denomination's Advance Special 982700-1,
"Black Church Burnings."
     By a vote of 245 to 226 the jurisdiction agreed to send a
letter of rebuke to United Methodist-related Emory University in
Atlanta. Proposed by the Rev. Joe P. Peabody of Gainesville, Ga.,
an alumnus, the letter takes the university's board of trustees to
task for including domestic partners in the provisions of the
institution's employee benefit plan. 
     The proposal passed although the Rev. R. Kevin LaGree, an
Emory dean, reported that the board executive committee had used
the denomination's Social Principles in their deliberation of the
issue.
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