wfn.org | United Methodists will elect a dozen U.S. bishops in July

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG>]

Feb. 21, 2000  News media contact: Thomas S.
McAnally·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.   10-21-30-71B{082}

By United Methodist News Service

At least a dozen new United Methodist bishops will be elected during five
simultaneous U.S. jurisdictional conferences July 12-15.  Elected for life,
the new leaders will be assigned, along with continuing bishops, to serve in
geographical areas for the next four years.

Normally, bishops do not serve in one area for more than two four-year
terms, but they can continue for a third term with special approval of the
jurisdictional conference. The denomination has 50 active bishops in the
United States.

This year, 12 and possibly 13 bishops will be elected. The number depends on
a technicality regarding membership decline in the Northeastern
Jurisdiction, which includes 11 states from Maine to West Virginia along
with the District of Columbia. 

One bishop in the Northeast, George W. Bashore of the Pittsburgh Area, will
retire this year. Based on language in the church's Book of Discipline, a
decrease in total church membership in the jurisdiction since the most
recent conference would require that the number of bishops be reduced from
10 to nine. The most recent conference was in 1996.

However, while plans for the 2000 gathering are moving full-steam ahead, the
conference is awaiting action by the church's top legislative body, which
will meet in Cleveland May 2-12. That assembly, the General Conference, will
consider proposals that would change the Book of Discipline's provisions and
allow the Northeastern Jurisdiction to elect one bishop. 

Each jurisdictional conference will have an equal number of clergy and lay
delegates selected by annual (regional) conferences within the
jurisdictions.  

The 50 active bishops in the United States include nine white women and 27
white men.  Fourteen are ethnic minority men: 10 African American, two Asian
American and two Hispanic American. Retiring this year are seven white men,
two African-American men, and one Asian-American man.

Locations of the five jurisdictional conferences, names of retiring bishops
and continuing bishops who have served eight years in their current
assignment follow:

Western: (Casper, Wyo.)
Melvin G. Talbert, San Francisco Area (African American)
Roy I. Sano, Los Angeles Area (Asian American)
(Completing eight years in one area -- Mary Ann Swenson, Denver Area)

North Central: (Madison, Wis.)
Charles W. Jordan, Iowa Area (African American)
Donald A. Ott, Michigan Area (white)
Judith Craig, Ohio West Area (white)
(Completing eight years in one area - Sharon Z. Rader, Wisconsin Area;
Woodie W. White, Indiana Area.)

Northeastern: (Somerset, N.J.)
George W. Bashore, Pittsburgh Area (white)
(Completing eight years in one area - Hae-Jong Kim, New York West Area; S.
Clifton Ives, West Virginia Area)

South Central: (Albuquerque, N.M.)
J. Woodrow Hearn, Houston Area (white)
Raymond H. Owen, San Antonio Area (white)
Joe A. Wilson, Fort Worth Area (white)
Dan E. Solomon, Louisiana Area (white)
(Completing eight years in one area - Joel N. Martinez, Nebraska Area; A.
Frederick Mutti, Kansas Area; Ann B. Sherer, Missouri Area; Alfred L.
Norris, Northwest Texas-New Mexico Area.) 

Southeastern: (Lake Junaluska, N.C.)
Marshall L. Meadors, Mississippi Area (white)
Robert C. Morgan, Louisville Area (white)
Richard C. Looney, South Georgia Area (white)
(Completing eight years in one area - Kenneth L. Carder, Nashville Area;
Robert E. Fannin, Birmingham Area; William W. Morris, Alabama-West Florida
Area.)

A resolution has been submitted to the General Conference that would allow
the Northeastern Jurisdiction to retain its current number of bishops,
according to Ernest Swiggett, treasurer of the New York Annual Conference
and chairman of the jurisdiction's episcopacy committee. 
 
The proposed legislation - which would apply to any jurisdiction - offers a
replacement of the language in Paragraph 405 of the Book of Discipline.
Under the new wording, jurisdictions with more than 500,000 church members
would be entitled to "one additional bishop for each 300,000 church members
or major fraction thereof" rather than the figure of 320,000 church members
found in the current language.

Additional language further provides that the number of bishops in a
jurisdiction would not be reduced until the number of church members has
decreased by at least 10 percent. In such a case, the number of bishops to
which the jurisdiction is entitled "shall be determined on the basis of
missional needs."

If the number of bishops were reduced, according to the petition, the
reduction would not be effective "until Sept. 1 of the fourth calendar year
after said reduction has been determined by the General Conference." 

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United Methodist News Service
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