Even as The United Methodist Church faces mounting disaffiliations, those who plan to remain United Methodist are working together more across jurisdictional lines. Jurisdictional conferences also elected more women and more people of color as bishops.
The Rev. Robin Dease, who was a write-in candidate on the first ballot for bishop in The United Methodist Church’s Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, was elected Nov. 3 on the 25th ballot at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. She received 206 votes, the exact number needed.
A South Central Jurisdictional Conference delegate asked the jurisdiction’s college of bishops to address the conduct and status of three episcopal leaders he said had provided “promotion and support” to the breakaway Global Methodist Church.
The Rev. David Wilson, assistant to the bishop of the Oklahoma and Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, was elected Nov. 2 on the first ballot, becoming the first Native American bishop in The United Methodist Church.
