wfn.org | Bishops make no announcement on Philippines

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Jan. 26, 2001 News media contact: Linda Bloom·(212) 870-3803·New York
10-33-71B{035}

By United Methodist News Service

No immediate decision has been announced by the United Methodist Council of
Bishops regarding requests to intervene in the episcopal election of the
denomination's Philippines Central Conference.

People following the election had hoped the council's executive committee
would act on the matter at its Jan. 23-24 meeting in Atlanta.

"The (council's) executive committee does not have anything to report on the
Philippines assignments as of now," Bishop William Oden, council president,
told United Methodist News Service on Jan. 25.

In December, the central conference elected two men as bishops - the Rev.
Leo Soriano and the Rev. Benjamin Justo - but was unable to elect a third
bishop. The conference's college of bishops was then widely expected to
nominate one of the Philippines' two retiring bishops to fill the vacancy.
That nomination would be forwarded to the larger Council of Bishops for
consideration.

When Soriano and Justo supported the reactivation of Bishop Daniel C.
Arichea Jr. during the college of bishops' meeting later that month,
supporters of Bishop Emerito P. Nacpil disputed the nomination, saying
Nacpil should be reactivated. The Council of Bishops was asked to intervene.

Oden did say the executive committee was sending a confidential letter to
the college of bishops in the Philippines but added that he could not share
the contents of the letter until after it had been received. 
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United Methodist News Service
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