wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# JC08004-John Michael Lowry elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

John Michael Lowry elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church

Jul. 18, 2008    News media contact:   Linda  Green * (615) 7425470*   Nashville {JC08004}

NOTE: A photograph is available at http://umns.umc.org.

>By Linda Green*

DALLAS (UMNS)-The Rev. John Michael Lowry of San Antonio has been  elected a bishop by the South Central Jurisdictional Conference of The  United Methodist Church.

Lowry, 58, executive director of new church development and  transformation of the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, was elected  July 18. He will fill one of the vacancies created in the denomination's  South Central College of Bishops by the retirements of two bishops and  the death of another.

The new bishops are being elected by 297 delegates attending the  conference. Lowry will become one of 11 active bishops serving one of  the episcopal areas in the eight state jurisdiction. The South Central  Jurisdiction is home to 1.8 million United Methodists in Arkansas,  Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.

A consecration service for the three new bishops will be held at 10:30  a.m. July 19 at First United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas.

An episcopal assignment committee is already considering where Lowry and  the other active bishops in the jurisdiction will serve for the next  four years. Their assignments will be effective Sept. 1.

Endorsed by the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, Lowry was elected on  the 11th ballot, receiving 189 of 295 votes cast.

While the South Central Jurisdictional Conference is occurring, four  other United Methodist jurisdictional conferences are also meeting to  elect bishops.

A United Methodist bishop is elected for life and, although eight years  is the standard term for a bishop to serve in an episcopal area, it is  not unusual for a bishop to be assigned to one area for 12 years for  "missional reasons."

Lowry says that a bishop needs to be the spiritual leader "casting a  vision for God's people and God's kingdom that is really inclusive."  Most of the people the church makes decisions about are not in the  church, he said.

Evangelism and social holiness are "the two towering emphases the church  has to be engaged in," Lowry said.

Reflecting on his spiritual development, Lowry said he quit the church  at 18 and went through an agnostic phase. He enrolled in a Quaker  College and in a class about Christian beliefs "with all the cynicism an  18-year-old can have." The class and the reading of works of  intellectual, religious thinkers led to a "dramatic conversion."

Lowry saw law school and seminary and the ordained ministry as his life  choice, but "that call was very clear in my life."

Bishops are charged by the church's Book of Discipline to "guard the  faith, order, liturgy, doctrine and discipline of the church" and "lead  all persons entrusted to their oversight in worship, in the celebration  of the sacraments, and in their mission of witness and service in the  world." They are also charged "to be prophetic voices and courageous  leaders in the cause of justice for all people."

A jurisdictional conference has the following power and duties:

To promote the evangelistic, educational, missionary and benevolent  interests of the Church and to provide for interests and institutions  within their boundaries. The South Central Jurisdictional Conference  institutions are Mt. Sequoyah, Fayetteville, Ark.; the Lydia Patterson  Institute, El Paso, Texas; and Southern Methodist University, Dallas.

To elect bishops. To establish and constitute jurisdictional conference boards as  auxiliaries to the general boards of the church. To determine the boundaries of annual conferences. To make rules and regulations for the administration of the church's  work within the jurisdiction. To appoint a committee on appeals. 

The United Methodist Church was created in 1968 by a merger of the  Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist churches. Methodists elected  their bishops at one national gathering until 1940, when the  jurisdictional system was instituted. Bishops in the EUB church were  elected at one national gathering until 1968.

> 
># # #

* Green is a United Methodist News Service news writer based in  Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Linda Green, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or  newsdesk@umcom.org

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

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

----------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe from this group, go to UMCom.org, log in to your account, click on the My Resources link and select the Leave option on the list(s) from which you wish to unsubscribe. If you have problems or questions, please write to websupport@umcom.org.

Powered by United Methodist Communications http://www.UMCom.org