2 new US bishops to be elected this week

Note: To enlarge the above map, click here and you can zoom in:

For more info, click here.

Key Points:

• Two unexpected vacancies among U.S. bishops has opened the door for the Western Jurisdiction to elect two new bishops.
• The number of U.S. bishops in office is still dropping from 39 to 32 starting Sept. 1.
• Even the four jurisdictional conferences that have no elections will have many decisions to make that will shape the denomination’s future.

Faced with a substantially reduced denominational budget, U.S. United Methodists initially planned to hold no bishop elections this year.

Now, the plan is for the Western Jurisdictional Conference to elect two new bishops when all five U.S. jurisdictional conferences meet this week starting July 10.

Circumstances have changed since May 3 when General Conference — the denomination’s international legislative assembly — voted to cut the number of active U.S. bishops from 39 to 32 and approved a recommendation for their distribution.

Two unexpected vacancies in U.S. bishop offices developed. Bishop Frank J. Beard, who leads the Illinois Great Rivers Conference in the North Central Jurisdiction, requested long-term disability effective Aug. 1. Bishop Robert Schnase, who leads the New Mexico and Rio Texas conferences in the South Central Jurisdiction, announced his retirement effective Sept. 1. That opened the way for the elections.

“There has been unprecedented collaboration across jurisdictions to get to this point,” said the Interjurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy in a statement released July 3.

“This plan gives each jurisdiction the minimum of five bishops as required by our Discipline and maintains the number of 32 total bishops in the jurisdictions to be funded by the Episcopal Fund. The vast majority of the expenses related to Bishop Beard’s long-term disability are funded outside of the Episcopal Fund.”

However, the General Council on Finance and Administration — the denomination’s finance agency that administers the Episcopal Fund — cautions that Beard’s long-term leave should not be treated the same way as a bishop’s retirement. Including Schnase, eight U.S. bishops are retiring.

But the Book of Discipline, the denomination’s policy book, considers a bishop to be active until they retire regardless of their medical or disability leave status, the agency said.

“GCFA must comply with the decision of General Conference regarding the number of jurisdictional bishops — nine in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, six each in the Northeastern, North Central and South Central Jurisdictions, and five in the Western Jurisdiction, for a combined total of 32 bishops,” the agency said in a statement.

Put another way, the agency sees potential for the number and distribution to exceed what General Conference approved when Beard — who is now dealing with blindness as a result of glaucoma — concludes his leave. Under U.S. employment law, the bishop must be able to return to his position.

The agency added that it remains “in prayer for our jurisdictional delegates as they meet this coming week” and thanked the interjurisdictional episcopacy committee for its many hours of work.

The little-known committee, which General Conference elects, developed both the original recommendation for the U.S. bishop reduction and the new plan that allows for bishop elections. The joint committee consists of a lay and clergy representative from each U.S. annual conference. Its responsibility in dealing with U.S. bishop distribution typically lasts only through General Conference. But that was not the case this year.

The challenge for the interjurisdictional episcopacy committee has been to fulfill the Discipline’s complicated requirements in the allocation of bishops, while also living into a substantially smaller denominational budget, cut by roughly 40% with an accompanying drop in requested giving to denominational funds.

The new financial constraints come after decades of declining U.S. membership and the more recent departure of about a quarter of U.S. United Methodist churches over differences around LGBTQ inclusion. United Methodists in the U.S. support the bulk of denominational funding.

Now after multiple meetings over the past two months, the full interjurisdictional committee overwhelmingly approved the following:

• The North Central Jurisdiction will have six bishops, down from nine currently.
• The Northeastern and Southeastern jurisdictions will share a bishop who will serve in both jurisdictions and be a member of both colleges of bishops.
• Including the shared bishop, the Northeastern Jurisdiction will have six bishops, the same number as currently (not counting retired Bishop Peggy Johnson, who is serving the New England Conference in an interim role).. 
• Including the shared bishop, the Southeastern Jurisdiction will have 10 bishops, down from 11. 
• The South Central Jurisdiction will have six bishops, down from eight.
• The Western Jurisdiction will elect two bishops to have a total of five bishops in the jurisdiction. That is the same number as the jurisdiction has currently.

Leaders of the Western Jurisdiction, now dealing with elections they didn’t anticipate, are seeking episcopal nominees and asking for prayer including for the discernment of potential bishops “who have the requisite gifts and skills to lead during such a time as this.”

During General Conference, the interjurisdictional committee originally recommended one bishop each would transfer from the Southeastern, South Central and North Central jurisdictions to fill certain vacancies — with two going to the Western Jurisdiction and one to the Northeastern.

But that proved easier said than done. Interjurisdictional committee members consulted with current bishops to see if any were willing to move across jurisdictional lines.

The committee noted that it discovered “either an unwillingness or inability to transfer any bishops through the process outlined in the Discipline.”

The Discipline states, “No bishop shall be transferred unless the bishop shall have specifically consented.”

The Judicial Council, the denomination’s top court, also clarified that the Discipline requires a bishop to have served at least four years in the jurisdiction where elected to be eligible to transfer across jurisdictional lines. That means none of the 13 U.S. bishops elected in 2022 could move beyond their home jurisdictions.

While transfers weren’t possible, the interjurisdictional episcopacy committee faced the additional disciplinary requirement that each jurisdiction is entitled to a minimum of five bishops. The Western Jurisdiction, which was already at that minimum, also was about to see two episcopal retirements.

General Conference has final say on how many bishops the denomination will fund over the next four years. While General Conference voted to decrease the number of bishops in the U.S., the delegates also voted to add two more bishops on the African continent, where the denomination is growing. The additional bishops will raise the total number of African bishops from 13 to 15.

In announcing his retirement, Schnase noted that the denomination’s financial situation played a role in his long discernment. He announced his retirement plans on July 1.

“The 2024 General Conference made many important and responsible decisions, including the adoption of a lower budget and a corresponding reduction in the number of U.S. bishops,” he said in a video about his decision.

His stepping down, he added, “is the solution that best serves the whole.”

This year’s minimal elections continue the trend — well known to most jurisdictions — of reducing their bishop numbers as membership declines. In 2012, the Western Jurisdiction held no elections to get down to the minimum allowed. In 2022, when after COVID delays, jurisdictional conferences held their first regular sessions in six years, the conferences opted not to fill every vacant episcopal office resulting from 20 retirements.

Jurisdictional conferences, which usually meet every four years, generally devote much of their time to bishop elections. In fact, jurisdictions have held at least some episcopal elections after every regular session of General Conference since the jurisdictional system formed in 1939.

But even if they don’t have bishop elections, the jurisdictional conferences this week will still have plenty of decisions to make. Jurisdictional conferences determine the boundaries of episcopal areas that bishops serve and the boundaries of the conferences within those episcopal areas. Each jurisdictional conference also votes on where its allotted bishops are assigned.

The interjurisdictional committee’s plan requires every jurisdiction to have at least one bishop whose area includes more than one conference.

In addition, the South Central Jurisdiction plans to vote on the unification of its Central Texas, North Texas and Northwest Texas conferences into the new Horizon Texas Conference starting next year.

The conferences’ plan for unification explains that the new conference will encompass a region that defies easy geographical labels. The new conference will stretch from the Dallas-Fort Worth Area to the northern edge of the Texas Hill Country to the Texas Panhandle.

“Expanding our horizon opens new opportunities for ministry and for creating disciples of Jesus Christ,” the unification plan said.

Jurisdictional conferences also elect leaders to varied church positions including as board members of the denomination’s general agencies. They also can vote on resolutions that signal the direction they hope for the denomination’s future.

Whatever comes next, the Interjurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy expects more change could still be on the horizon when jurisdictional conferences meet again in 2028.

“The ICOE recognizes that we are in significant time of transition and invites The United Methodist Church to be in prayer for the election of two bishops in the West, the assignment of each bishop, and the work of the whole church that is now before us,” the committee’s statement said.

Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free daily or weekly Digests.