wfn.org | Annual conferences put forth six candidates for bishop's post

[NewsDesk@UMCOM.UMC.ORG]

Feb. 13, 2001      News media contact: Joretta Purdue ·(202)
546-8722·Washington    10-21-71B{076}

NOTE: Charles Johnson's birth date is Feb. 20, 1944. Editors and reporters
who use this story after that date should change his age accordingly.

By United Methodist News Service

Six candidates for bishop have emerged in the Southeastern Jurisdiction of
the United Methodist Church. Only two of the six were nominated by their
annual conferences before the election of three bishops last July.

The death of Bishop Cornelius Henderson in December prompted the bishops of
the jurisdiction to issue a call for this special session of the nine-state
region. It will take place Feb. 26-28 at Lake Junaluska, N.C. 

Four men and two women have been endorsed by their annual conference
delegations. One of the men is a Native American, and one is African
American.

Martha H. Forrest, 61, is superintendent of the Atlanta-College Park
District in the North Georgia Conference. A graduate of Duke University and
Candler School of Theology, she served three churches as pastor between 1979
and 1998, when she became a district superintendent.

A voting member of the Commission on the Status and Role of Women from 1992
to 2000, she has also served as chairwoman of the North Georgia Council on
Finance and Administration. She has been a delegate to jurisdictional
conference, General Conference and the World Methodist Conference. 

Forrest is married to Robert O. Forrest Sr., and they have three children.

Alfred (Al) Wesley Gwinn Jr., 57, is senior pastor at First United Methodist
Church in Lexington, Ky. He has previously been superintendent of the
Lexington District and has served two rural, an inner-city and four
large-membership churches. He was co-chairman of the move uniting the former
Louisville and Kentucky conferences. 

Gwinn, who became an elder in the conference in 1971, earned his bachelor's
degree at the University of Kentucky and his master of divinity at Asbury
Theological Seminary.

An annual conference delegate to the last four General Conferences, he has
served on the churchwide General Council of Ministries and the Southeastern
Jurisdiction Administrative Council. 

Gwinn and his wife, Joyce, have two daughters and four grandchildren.

Charles L. Johnson Sr., 56, an African American, is a conference director
working with the South Carolina Conference Council on Ministries. A member
of the conference since 1967, he has been a pastor, college chaplain and
district superintendent. He earned a bachelor's degree from Claflin College,
a master of divinity from the Interdenominational Theological Center and a
master of sacred theology from Boston University.

Johnson has served on the conference board of ministry, council on
ministries and council on finance and administration.  He has been chairman
of the conference's joint review and ethnic minority local church committees
and been president of the council on finance and administration. Johnson is
also a trustee of two church-related colleges.

In addition to being endorsed by the South Carolina delegation to
jurisdictional conference, Johnson has the support of the Southeastern
Jurisdiction Black Methodists for Church Renewal.

He and his wife, Charlene, have three children. 

Jerry Hilton Mayo, 55, has been pastor of First United Methodist Church in
Murfreesboro, Tenn., since 1992. Previously, he was superintendent of the
Pulaski District. Mayo has served churches and country circuits since his
student years at Middle Tennessee State University, where he earned a
bachelor's degree. He received his master of divinity from Candler School of
Theology.

Mayo has been a delegate to jurisdictional and General conferences,
beginning with 1984. He has also been a member of the Southeastern
Jurisdiction Board of Ordained Ministry and the committee on episcopacy. He
has been the chairman of the Tennessee Conference Board of Ordained Ministry
and the conference camping committee, a director of McKendree Village and a
trustee of Martin College. He also served on the conference council on
finance and administration and the council on ministries.

He and his wife, the former Patricia Scott, have four children and eight
grandchildren. 

Nancy Burgin Rankin, 49, is the superintendent of the Statesville District
in the Western North Carolina Annual Conference. She has served three
pastorates since becoming an elder in the conference, beginning in 1984.
Previously, she was a preschool teacher in the Children's Enrichment Program
at First United Methodist Church in High Point, N.C.

Rankin earned her bachelor of arts in Christian education at High Point
University; her master of divinity at the Divinity School, Duke University;
and her doctor of ministry degree at United Theological Seminary.

She has been a delegate to jurisdictional and General conferences. Rankin
has been president of the Winston-Salem District Ministers Association, the
Charlotte Area Clergy Association and the Duke University Divinity School
National Alumni Association. She was the Winston-Salem District young adult
ministries coordinator and has served on the Mecklenburg Ministries Board
and the University of North Carolina-Chapel Hill Methodist/Presbyterian
Campus Ministry Board.

She is married to Terry A. Rankin, and they have two children and one
grandchild.

Sam Wynn, 47, a Native American and member of the Lumbee tribe, is
superintendent of New Bern District in the North Carolina Conference. He has
been a pastor and executive director of the Native American International
Caucus (NAIC). He was ordained an elder in 1982.

Wynn earned his bachelor of arts from Pembroke State University, his master
of divinity from Asbury Theological School and his doctor of ministry from
Drew University, The Theological School.

He has been a delegate to jurisdiction and General conferences and was an
observer for NAIC at the 1980, 1984 and 1988 General Conferences. At the
2000 General Conference, he was chairman of the general/judicial
administration legislative committee. He has also been a voting member of
the General Council on Ministries and the churchwide Commission on Religion
and Race. He was chairman of the denomination's Native American
Comprehensive Plan from 1996 to 2000.

Along with support from the North Carolina delegation, Wynn has been
endorsed by NAIC and the Southeastern Jurisdiction Association of Native
American Ministries.

Wynn is married and has a son.

Bishop Henderson was beginning his second four-year term as leader of the
church's Florida Annual Conference when he died Dec. 7 of cancer. He was 66.

The new bishop won't necessarily go to Florida, but may be assigned to any
of the conferences in the jurisdiction.

United Methodist News Service is providing ongoing coverage of the session
and the election at umns.umc.org/sejspecialsession on the World Wide Web.
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United Methodist News Service
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