Last week the Western region of the United Methodist Church elected two new bishops, Kristin Stoneking and Sandra Olewine. The process of electing a bishop involves speeches, interviews with the candidates, meetings of teams of delegates, conversations about what each conference needs and the future of the church, and lots of prayer. After 17 ballots we had two bishops..Don’t forget to ask Paige all about the process as she was one of the delegates electing bishops!
Then my worry started. A committee met late in to the night to assign the 2 new bishops and the continuing 3 bishops to the 5 regions of the Western Jurisdiction: Greater Northwest which is made up of Alaska, Oregon, Idaho, & Washington, Mountain Sky which is Montana, Wyoming, Colorado & Utah, Cal-Nev compromised of Northern California and most of Nevada, Cal-Pac Hawaii and the rest of California, and Desert Southwest which is Arizona and (as my husband says) the cool parts of Nevada- the Las Vegas area. Fortunately Bishop Cedrick Bridgeforth was reassigned to us. After just 18 months as our bishop he has already made some good changes and is actively working to heal and improve parts of our region. While I am sure all the remaining bishops are great, I really hoped to continue on the path we have started with our work on the bishop’s MILE program. (Ministry that matters, Itinerancy and location, Lay empowerment, and Eliminating racism). We have incorporated these expressions into our five year plan and have been documenting our progress with written notes in a jar in the narthex of the Trinity building. Remember if you see us living out our plans or working on MILE we ask you to write it down so we can remember at the end of the year all the progress we have made in following God’s call for us!
As we celebrate new leadership and continue to be inspired by our bishop I ask you to pray for Bishops Stoneking & Olewine as well as for our bishop, Cedrick Bridgeforth. It is important work they do to lead us and create a vision of God at work in the wider church. May they lead us faithfully and with courage.
-Eilidh
Bishops Sandra Olewine and Kristin Stoneking at their consecration on Saturday July 13th
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