wfn.org | Knox becomes acting bishop of Florida Conference

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Dec. 11, 2000 News media contact: Tim Tanton·(615)742-5470·Nashville, Tenn.
10-21-71B{553}

By Tita Parham*

LAKELAND, Fla. (UMNS) -- The United Methodist Council of Bishops has named
Bishop J. Lloyd Knox acting head of the church's Florida Annual Conference,
following the Dec. 7 death of Cornelius L. Henderson.

The decision was made Dec. 8, according to the Rev. Keith Ewing,
administrative assistant to the Florida Conference bishop.
	
Bishop Henderson, 66, died in a hospice center in Atlanta after a two-year
battle with multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. He was appointed
bishop of the Florida Conference in September 1996. 

The denomination's Southeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops submitted
Knox's name for approval to the Council of Bishops, which comprises all
active and retired United Methodist bishops. The jurisdiction's college
consists of the active and retired bishops in the church's Southeast region.
	
Knox, 71, will lead the conference until a permanent bishop is chosen to
serve the remainder of Henderson's term, which ends in August 2004.
	
How long the process will take is uncertain. The College of Bishops can
either name a retired bishop as the permanent replacement, submitting its
recommendation to the council for approval, or call a special session of the
Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference. If a special session is called,
delegates representing United Methodists from across the Southeastern part
of the United States will elect a new bishop from the jurisdiction.
	
The new bishop would not necessarily be appointed to the Florida Conference,
however, according to Ewing. The denomination's Committee on Episcopacy
could appoint the new bishop to another conference and someone else to
Florida. The special session would be electing a bishop for the
jurisdiction, not for the Florida Conference, Ewing said. 
	
The College of Bishops has a regularly scheduled meeting Jan. 18, but
whether a new bishop for Florida will be discussed then is not clear,
according to Ewing.
	
Ewing said he is very positive about Knox being named acting bishop. "Bishop
Knox knows the conference well. He has been through the appointment process,
and he is well known throughout the church. Those in leadership positions
feel very good because of the stability Knox brings."
	
Knox served as interim bishop of the conference for six months beginning in
March 1999 while Henderson was on disability leave receiving treatment for
cancer.
	
A member of the Florida Conference throughout his ministry, Knox served as
pastor of churches in Tampa, West Palm Beach and St. Petersburg and as
district superintendent of the DeLand District in 1977 and Miami District in
1980. He also served as a missionary to Cuba and Argentina and was
coordinator of the conference's Methodist Spanish Ministry in 1965.
	
Knox was elected a bishop in 1984. He was appointed to the Birmingham Area
from 1984 to 1992 and the Atlanta Area from 1992 until his retirement in
1996.
	
Currently, he is serving as chairman of a Florida Conference task force to
coordinate cooperative ministries with the Cuba Methodist Conference through
the Cuba Florida Covenant, which was approved by representatives of both
conferences in 1997.
	
Knox said he is willing to act as bishop in the short term. "My hope is that
by the first of April this is resolved and a new bishop could move to
Florida," he said. "For Florida's sake, we need a full-time, active bishop."
	
This is not the first time United Methodists in Florida have experienced the
death of their appointed bishop, according to Knox. Bishop John W. Branscomb
died in 1959 at age 53 while serving as bishop of what was then the
Jacksonville area, comprising the Florida and Cuba Methodist conferences.
Bishop Arthur J. Moore was assigned to lead the Florida Conference, and
Bishop Roy H. Short was assigned as bishop of the Cuba Conference.
	
The Florida Conference is the second largest of 65 annual conferences in the
United States. It extends east of the Apalachicola River to Key West and
consists of 743 churches and nearly 340,000 members. 
# # #
*Parham is communications director for the United Methodist Church's Florida
Annual Conference and editor of the Florida United Methodist Review
newspaper.

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United Methodist News Service
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