wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# JC08006-Hagiya elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church

[NewsDesk <NewsDesk@UMCOM.ORG>]

Hagiya elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church

Jul. 18, 2008    News media contact:   Marta  Aldrich * (615) 742-5133*   Nashville {JC08006}

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

>By Marta W. Aldrich

PORTLAND, Ore. (UMNS)-The Rev. Grant Hagiya of Redondo Beach, Calif.,  has been elected a bishop by the Western Jurisdictional Conference of  The United Methodist Church.

Hagiya, 56, a Japanese-American, was elected July 18 on the 16th ballot.  He is one of eight new bishops being elected this week at five  jurisdictional meetings across the United States. Two of the openings  are in the church's Western Jurisdiction.

After serving eight years as a district superintendent in Los Angeles,  Hagiya in April became executive director of Leadership Development and  the Center of Leadership Excellence, a joint project of the church's  California Pacific Annual (regional) Conference and the Claremont School  of Theology.

He will become one of 50 active U.S. bishops, including six serving the  12-state Western Jurisdiction. The jurisdiction is home to 390,000  United Methodists in seven annual conferences that span Arizona,  California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah,  Washington and Wyoming, as well as one missionary conference in Alaska.

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

Endorsed by the California-Pacific Conference, Hagiya was elected by  receiving 54 votes cast by 80 delegates.

Prior to serving as a district superintendent, Hagiya led California  congregations in Los Angeles, Berkeley and Gardena. He has been an  assistant professor at Claremont School of Theology, a United  Methodist-related seminary near Los Angeles, where he received his  doctor of ministry, master of divinity and master of arts degrees. For  the last two years, he has pursued his doctoral degree in organizational  leadership at Pepperdine University. He and his wife, Janet, have three  children.

"It is so humbling to stand before you like this," Hagiya told delegates  after receiving a standing ovation at the conference. He thanked the  leaders and people of California-Pacific in particular for their support  but added that "a line of demarcation that all the bishops know has been  crossed.

"I can no longer say I am from Cal-Pac. I belong to all of you. I want  you to know how deeply moving that is to belong to all of you," he said.

A consecration service for Hagiya and the jurisdiction's other new  bishop will be held at 2 p.m. PT on July 19 at First United Methodist  Church of Portland.

Hagiya will fill one of two vacancies created in the Western  Jurisdiction College of Bishops by the retirement of Bishop Beverly  Shamana and the resignation of Bishop Edward Paup. Paup has been elected  to lead the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries, the church's  mission agency, effective Sept. 1.

The Western Jurisdiction, convening once every four years, is conducting  its business July 16-19.

In addition to electing bishops, a jurisdictional conference has the  power to:

"       Promote the evangelistic, educational, missionary and benevolent  interests of the church and to provide for interests and institutions  within their boundaries;

"        stablish and constitute jurisdictional conference boards as  auxiliaries to the general boards of the church; 
"       Determine the boundaries of annual conferences; 
"       Make rules and regulations for the administration of the  church's work within the jurisdiction; and
"       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.

># # #

*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service. News media contact: Marta Aldrich, 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