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Hoosier United Methodist News Archives
| Hoosier United Methodists together |
May/June 2004 |
United Methodists to elect 20 new U.S. bishops in July
By J. Richard Peck
UMNS Report
Every four years during July, a new cadre of bishops is elected into the Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church.
These episcopal elections occur in five geographic conferences across the United States. When delegates in those jurisdictional conferences gather July 14-17, they could elect as many as 20 U.S. bishops. United Methodists in Europe and Africa will elect a total of four bishops in separate sessions.
The new bishops will succeed 20 others who are retiring from the active episcopacy. Retiring are 12 white men, two white women, four African-American men, one Asian-American man and one Hispanic man. Four bishops in the central conferences - regional units outside the United States - are retiring this year.
According to denominational policy, all U.S. elections must begin on the same day, established as July 14. Each jurisdictional gathering will have an equal number of lay and clergy delegates. The total numbers depend on membership within the annual (regional) conferences in each jurisdiction.
All people elected as delegates to General Conference are also delegates to jurisdictional conferences. An equal number of people were elected last May and June to serve as additional delegates to jurisdictional conferences.
Episcopal candidates must be ordained United Methodist clergy. They are frequently endorsed by caucuses, associations and jurisdictional conference delegates from various annual conferences. Candidates may also be nominated by the annual conference. However, a person does not have to be nominated nor endorsed to be elected. At least 56 United Methodists from across the United States have been endorsed or nominated for the episcopacy including the Revs. Mark Fenstermacher of Elkhart and Gregory McGarvey of Carmel in Indiana.
Each jurisdictional conference determines its own procedures and fixes the percentage of votes necessary to elect a bishop, but church law suggests that at least 60 percent be required for election. The North Central Jurisdiction requires 60 percent of the vote to be elected.
Following the elections, bishops are consecrated at the conference sessions and are assigned to specific geographic areas. Assignments are proposed to the conference delegates by a jurisdictional committee on the episcopacy after consultation with the bishops. The date of assignment for all United Methodist bishops is Sept. 1.
Bishops are normally reassigned after serving a regional conference for eight years, but they may be reassigned to the same annual conference for another four years following a two-thirds vote of the jurisdictional committee on episcopacy and a two-thirds vote of the jurisdictional conference.
According to church law, bishops who will be 66 or older before July 1 will have to retire this year including Bishop White of Indiana. Fourteen bishops will reach the age of normal retirement, but an additional six are planning to take early retirement.
Bishops taking early retirement include: Sharon Zimmerman Rader, Sun Prairie, Wis.; C. Joseph Sprague, Chicago; Kenneth Carder, Jackson, Miss.; Marion M. Edwards, Raleigh, N.C.; and Joe E. Pennel, Richmond, Va., and Susan Hassinger, Lawrence, Mass.
The North Central Jurisdiction will elect three bishops. The 328 delegates (48 of Indiana) to the conference will meet July 14-17 at the River Center in Davenport, Iowa. Retiring bishops at this session include Rader; Sprague; and White.
J. Richard Peck is a retired clergy member of New York Annual Conference and former editor with the United Methodist Publishing House.
Last updated on May 17, 2004