wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# JC08005-Julius C. Trimble elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Julius C. Trimble elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church

Jul. 18, 2008    News media contact:   Kathy  Gilbert * (615) 7425470*   Nashville {JC08005}

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

>By Kathy L. Gilbert*

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich. (UMNS)-The Rev. Julius C. Trimble, Warrensville  Heights, Ohio, has been elected a bishop by the North Central  Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church.

Trimble, 54, senior pastor of Aldersgate United Methodist Church in  Warrensville Heights, was elected July 18 with 225 votes on the 24th  ballot by conference delegates. He fills a vacancy created in the  denomination's North Central College of Bishops by the retirement of  Bishop Sharon Brown Christopher, who has led the Illinois Area.

A consecration service for Trimble is set for 9:30 a.m. on July 19 at  First United Methodist Church, Grand Rapids. Geographical assignments  for the jurisdiction's bishops will be announced after the service.

"I thank Jesus Christ, who is my personal savior but not my private  one," Trimble said as he was introduced to the delegates as Bishop  Julius Calvin Trimble. "You could have elected any of the other  candidates, and you would have done a great work for the church." The  Rev. David Alan Bard, Duluth, Minn., withdrew his name before the last  ballot was taken.

Trimble was endorsed by the East Ohio Annual (regional) Conference,  Greater Cleveland Methodist Ministers Alliance and the North Central  Jurisdiction's Black Methodists for Church Renewal. On Sept. 1, he will  become one of 10 active bishops in the North Central Jurisdiction, which  includes 12 conferences and nine states.

Trimble has been pastor at Aldersgate since 2003 and served as  superintendent of the Cleveland District from 1996-2003. He began his  ministry in 1980 as a youth minister at Christ United Methodist Church  in Chicago.

He received his doctorate in ministry at Ashland Theological Seminary in  1999 and was named an outstanding alumnus of Garrett Theological  Seminary in 1998. He received the 2007 Bishop James S. Thomas Social  Action Award from the Methodist Federation for Social Action. He is a  member of Black Methodists for Church Renewal, a trustee of the Saint  Luke's Foundation of Cleveland and a director of the United Methodist  Board of Church and Society, where he is chairperson of the Alcohol,  Other Addictions and Healthcare work area.

Since 2001 he has served as an adjunct instructor in the religion  department of Baldwin-Wallace College, teaching courses on the Rev.  Martin Luther King Jr. and the African-American religious experience.

Trimble has preached in South Africa and Zimbabwe and was the keynote  speaker for the National Episcopal Urban Conference in 1996. He and his  wife, Racelder, have three children.

Reciting a prayer he learned from his grandmother, Trimble said, "Lord,  have mercy. Lord, have mercy." Looking around the jurisdictional  conference stage he added, "I have served under some great bishops, God  bless you."

A United Methodist bishop in the United States is elected for life.  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."

Bishops are charged by the church's Book of Discipline to "lead and  oversee the spiritual and temporal affairs" of the church and to "guard,  transmit, teach and proclaim, corporately and individually, the  apostolic faith as it is expressed in Scripture and tradition, and, as  they are led and endowed by the Spirit, to interpret that faith  evangelically and prophetically."

# # # 

*Gilbert is a news writer for United Methodist News Service in  Nashville, Tenn.

News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, 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