wfn.org | Philippine United Methodists elect two new bishops

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Dec. 21, 2000 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-21-33-71B{583}

By Rebecca C. Asedillo*
United Methodist News Service

United Methodists elected two new bishops during the Philippine Central
Conference sessions Dec. 13-17 in Cabanatuan City, north of Manila.

Elected were the Rev. Leo Soriano, administrative assistant to Bishop Paul
Locke A. Granadosin of the church's Davao Area, and the Rev. Benjamin Justo,
a seminary professor and former dean of academic affairs at Union
Theological Seminary in Manila. The conference was unable to elect a third
bishop.

Both new bishops have publicly advocated for an affiliated autonomous
relationship with the United Methodist Church.  In church parlance, an
affiliated autonomous Methodist church is a self-governing body that has by
mutual agreement entered into a covenant or relationship with the United
Methodist Church.

"We would love to see a Methodist Church in this new millennium whose
structure is designed to fit its mission in the Philippine context,
sovereign in managing its own affairs, yet in harmonious relationship with
other denominations both here and abroad," Soriano told a clergy retreat on
the southern island of Mindanao in July.

While presiding over the conference as a newly-consecrated bishop, however,
Soriano had to rule out of order the petitions from four annual conferences
that advocated for an affiliated autonomous relationship with the United
Methodist Church.

His ruling was based on previous rulings upheld by the Judicial Council, the
denomination's highest court, that matters of autonomy could only proceed if
all the 17 annual conferences within the Philippine Central Conference would
submit similar petition. A delegate immediately appealed Soriano's ruling to
the Judicial Council.

Soriano, who is also a medical doctor, has served as a person-in-mission
assigned to health ministries among the poor, rural population of Mindanao.
He also has served as the Mindanao Annual Conference secretary and chairman
of the conference board of ordained ministry. Prior to the election, he
worked with Granadosin, who was re-activated as bishop when the previous
Central Conference failed to elect a new bishop.

Endorsed by the Mindanao Annual Conference and joint cabinet of the Davao
area, Soriano was elected on the fifth ballot.  Presiding over conference
sessions during the elections was Arkansas Bishop Janice Huie.

Justo, elected on the seventh ballot, previously had been president of the
Methodist-related Aldersgate College in the province of Nueva Vizcaya and
for six years served as a district superintendent in the same northern Luzon
area. He was a 1984 General Conference delegate, member of the
denomination's Connectional Process Team, and served a local congregation in
Tarzana, Calif., in a pastor's exchange program.

When a third bishop was not elected, hopes were dashed for the United
Methodist Women's Society for Christian Service and its attempt to elect a
female bishop. The organization had officially endorsed the candidacy of the
Rev. Elizabeth S. Tapia, the current academic dean of Union Theological
Seminary in Manila, who is a feminist theologian and renowned ecumenical
leader.

The choice for a third bishop will be decided at a Philippine College of
Bishops meeting scheduled for Dec. 23. Based on Paragraph 408 of he Book of
Discipline, the vacant Episcopal slot will be filled by the denomination's
Council of Bishops upon nomination of the central conference's college of
bishops. The nomination is expected to go to one of the two retiring
bishops: Bishop Daniel C. Arichea, Jr., who supports autonomy, and Bishop
Emerito P. Nacpil, who opposes it.

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*Asedillo is a freelance writer and United Methodist deaconess who resides
in Baltimore.

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United Methodist News Service
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