On Nov. 2-4, 2022, the five jurisdictions of The United Methodist Church in the United States will hold Jurisdictional Conferences. The main purpose of the conferences is to elect and assign Bishops. Currently, there are 20 bishops in the United States who have retired since 2021 or are set to retire by the end of this year. However, in each jurisdiction leaders are recommending delegates elect fewer bishops than the current vacancies.
The delegation from North Alabama will gather with the delegations from the 14 Annual Conferences in the Southeastern Jurisdiction (SEJ) at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina.
This year, the SEJ would be authorized to elect five new bishops based on five Bishop retirements and the formula outlined in The Book of Discipline (see ¶404) for the number of bishops based on church membership within a jurisdiction. In its report to the conference, the SEJ Committee on Episcopacy recommends the SEJ only elect three Bishops saying, “We believe strong and consistent episcopal leadership is needed in this time as we experience the disaffiliation of some churches, denominational uncertainties, and as we respond to other changes wrought by the pandemic and challenging societal issues.” The Committee adds, “we believe it would be irresponsible to ignore the potential negative financial impact of electing five bishops until we have clearer evidence of the sustainability of such elections.” The committee also explains that all episcopal areas within the SEJ could be covered if two Bishops are assigned to oversee two episcopal areas each until September 2024. Since September 2021 four Bishops in the Southeast have been serving multiple episcopal areas — including Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett who is serving North Alabama and the Holston Conferences. The delegates of the SEJ Conference will vote on the Committee on Episcopacy’s recommendation and will decide the number of new Bishops they elect.
In addition to electing new Bishops, the Conference will decide the assignments for all active Bishops beginning Jan. 1, 2023. The episcopal assignment process is overseen by the Jurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy and then approved by the Jurisdictional Conference delegates.
In addition to Bishop elections, delegates will worship together, hear reports from Jurisdictional committees and consider a resolution for a name change for the Red Bird Missionary Conference. The Conference will end on Friday morning with a Service of Consecration of the newly elected Bishops.
The SEJ Conference will be live-streamed. For more information about SEJ 2022, including the SEJ episcopal nominees, and to watch the live stream of the Conference visit https://www.sejumc.org/sej-conference-2022.
Original source can be found here.
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