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Northeast United Methodists look at boundaries

>Jul. 9, 2008

NOTE: Photographs are available at http://umns.umc.org.

>A UMNS Report By Linda Bloom*

United Methodists in the denomination's Northeastern Jurisdiction will
vote on proposed changes in episcopal area boundaries during their July
13-18 conference in Harrisburg, Pa.

The recommendations from the jurisdiction's boundaries committee, which
would take effect in 2010, also relate to the number of bishops to be
elected during the gathering, according to Ruth Daugherty, secretary for
the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference.

Under its current configuration, the Northeastern Jurisdiction covers 10
episcopal areas (13 annual conferences) in the region from Maine to West
Virginia.

The new boundaries would reduce the number of episcopal areas from 10 to
nine. If the changes are approved, the episcopacy committee is expected
to recommend the election of one new bishop and the appointment of a
retired bishop in the tenth area until it is phased out.

The resolution from the boundaries committee notes the "extensive work
and discernment by United Methodists in the four Annual Conferences of
the Albany and New York West Areas, and between the Wyoming and Central
Pennsylvania Conferences, and between the Troy and New England
Conferences, with the understanding that dialogue and discernment will
continue."

During their meetings this year, all six annual conferences "strongly
affirmed resolutions requesting the 2008 Northeastern Jurisdictional
Conference change their boundaries."

>As a result:

*	A new annual conference in New York state would be formed by the
current North Central and Western New York conferences and parts of the
Wyoming and Troy conference churches located in the state;
*	Troy Conference churches located in Vermont would become part of
the New England Conference; and
*	A new annual conference would be created from the Pennsylvania
churches of the current Wyoming Conference and all the churches of the
present Central Pennsylvania Conference.

Preliminary meetings for the Northeastern Jurisdictional
Conference--with the theme "Extreme Church: Extreme Expectations"--begin
on July 13 at the Hilton Harrisburg Hotel and the Whitaker Center for
Science and the Arts. Delegates arrive the next day.

>Episcopal elections

Small groups, formed across annual conference lines, will interview
episcopal candidates on July 15. The conference's opening session will
occur the morning of July 16, with the boundaries committee report,
episcopacy committee report and first episcopal ballot scheduled for the
afternoon. Bishop Jane Middleton, leader of the host Central
Pennsylvania Annual Conference, will deliver the "State of the
Jurisdiction" episcopal address.

Middleton, 67, was facing retirement, but General Conference, the
denomination's top legislative body, voted last spring to extend the
mandatory retirement age by two years. Now, bishops must retire on Aug.
31 following the regular session of the jurisdictional conference if the
bishop's 68th birthday is reached on or before July 1 of the year in
which the jurisdictional conference is held.

After the General Conference vote, Middleton, who was elected a bishop
in 2004, said she was "very grateful to have another four years to serve
in this way."

Bishop Violet L. Fisher of Rochester, N.Y., one of three
African-American women elected bishop in 2000, will retire on Aug. 31.
She has served the New York West Area the past eight years.

Both Fisher and Bishop Susan Morrison--who took early retirement and was
replaced by retired Bishop Susan Hassinger in the Albany Area--will be
honored at a reception at 8 p.m. on July 16 during the conference.

A new bishop is expected to be elected at some point on July 17. The
conference will conclude the morning of July 18 with the assignment of
conferences and bishops to episcopal areas and a service of consecration
for bishops.

Information about episcopal elections in all five U.S. jurisdictions of
The United Methodist Church can be found at www.umc.org/elections2008.

*Bloom is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in New York.

News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or
newsdesk@umcom.org.

>********************

United Methodist News Service Photos and stories also available at: http://umns.umc.org

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