wfn.org | [UMNS-ALL-NEWS] UMNS# 310-Three Western U.S. bishops get new assignments

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Three Western U.S. bishops get new assignments

Jul. 19, 2008    News media contact:   Marta  Aldrich * (615) 742-5133*   Nashville {310}

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

>By Marta W. Aldrich*

PORTLAND, Ore. (UMNS)-Two United Methodist bishops elected in the  Western United States have been assigned to the church's Denver and  Seattle areas, while one of the region's four other bishops is leaving  the Rocky Mountains to return to California.

Under assignments announced July 19, Bishop Elaine J.W. Stanovsky,  elected only hours earlier by the United Methodist Western  Jurisdictional Conference, is being sent from Seattle, where she has  been a district superintendent, to the Denver Area, where she will  oversee the Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone annual (regional)  conferences.

The Denver Area is the church's largest geographic conference in the  contiguous United States and includes Colorado, Utah and the  southeastern two-thirds of Wyoming.

Meeting with members from Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone following the  announcement, Stanovsky offered thanks for their "warm welcome" as she  was presented a basket filled with hometown maps, caps, books and even  salt water taffy.

"I'm sensing a spirit of openness to building new partnerships to  strengthen and grow the church," she said later.

Bishop Grant Hagiya, elected to the episcopacy July 18, will head to the  Seattle-based Pacific Northwest Conference, which includes Washington, a  portion of Idaho and the Alaska Missionary Conference. A former district  superintendent in Los Angeles, Hagiya is most recently executive  director of Leadership Development and the Center of Leadership  Excellence, a joint project of the church's California-Pacific Annual  Conference and the Claremont School of Theology.

"We didn't talk business," said Hagiya of his brief meeting with his new  flock after the announcement. "There was very much a sense of  hospitality. Hopefully, it will model the radical hospitality we wish to  have for the whole conference."

>Coming home

Bishop Warner H. Brown Jr., after serving the church's Denver Area for  the past eight years, is returning to the San Francisco Area, where he  was a member for 20 years as a pastor, district superintendent and  conference council director. His new assignment involves overseeing the  California-Nevada Conference, which includes northern California and  Nevada.

"I'm serving the church so I was prepared to go where sent," Brown said.  "But it's exciting to go somewhere that I have existing relationships."

Bishops remaining in their current assignments are Minerva Carcaño,  beginning a second four-year term in the Phoenix Area, which covers the  Desert Southwest Conference in Arizona; Robert Hoshibata, beginning a  second term in the Portland Area, which oversees the Oregon-Idaho  Conference; and Mary Ann Swenson, beginning a third term in the Los  Angeles Area and the California-Pacific Conference, which includes  southern California, Guam and Hawaii. Swenson also will supervise the  jurisdiction's Korean mission.

>All assignments become effective Sept. 1.

Applause erupted among delegates and visitors as the assignments were  announced July 19, the closing day of the Western Jurisdictional  Conference. The gathering had begun July 16 and included bishops'  elections that went into the early-morning hours of the final day. After  the assignments were announced, members of each area surrounded their  bishop in a show of support, accompanied by hymns and other songs.

Brown clapped and sang along as his group burst into "San Francisco,  here I come/ right back where I started from."

>Ripe for growth

The Western Jurisdiction's six bishops supervise an area that is home to  390,000 United Methodists in Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado,  Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming, as  well as Guam and other U.S. territories in the Pacific.

The Western United States is considered a region ripe for evangelism and  church growth for The United Methodist Church, which has designated  starting new churches as one of its four denominational areas of focus,  along with renewing existing congregations.

A consecration service for the new and existing bishops was scheduled  for later July 19 in Portland. The two vacancies on the Western  Jurisdiction College of Bishops were created by the retirement of Bishop  Beverly Shamana and the resignation of Bishop Edward Paup, who has been  elected to lead the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.

># # #

*Aldrich is news editor of United Methodist News Service.

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

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

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