by John Coleman and Beth DiCocco
The 2024 Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference reduced its episcopal areas from nine to six last night, after hearing an extensive report and approving a motion from its Committee on Episcopacy. In the new configuration, eight annual conferences will each share a bishop and two conferences will each have one bishop. The decision was affirmed by a 123 to 19 vote.
The new episcopal areas, which will receive names before bishops are assigned on Friday, comprise these conferences:
- Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware
- Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey
- New York and New England
- Susquehanna and Upper New York
- Western Pennsylvania
- West Virginia
Since 2022, the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Conferences have shared a bishop, and Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey have also shared a bishop. Meanwhile, supervision of the Susquehanna Conference has been shared by the bishops of the Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia conferences.
Currently, the jurisdiction has seven bishops, including Bishop John Schol, who retires at this conference, and Bishop Peggy Johnson, who will return to retirement status after serving in New England for the past 18 months.
Those retirements leave five active bishops. The 2024 General Conference voted in May to apportion six bishops to the Northeastern Jurisdiction and varying numbers of bishops to the other four jurisdictions, approving a recommendation from the UMC’s Interjurisdictional Episcopacy Committee.
General Conference also allowed jurisdictions to assign active bishops who are willing to transfer across jurisdictional lines. While no current bishops were able or willing to transfer, the NEJ agreed to share a bishop with the Southeastern Jurisdiction. The two jurisdictions will make that joint episcopal assignment this week, assigning a SEJ bishop to be shared by an NEJ conference, bringing the NEJ total effectively to six bishops.
Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett, who serves the Birmingham Episcopal Area and Holston Episcopal Area in the Southeastern Jurisdiction, is the bishop who will be shared across the jurisdictions.
Bishop Wallace-Padgett, who was elected in 2012, will join Bishop Sandra Steiner Ball, Bishop Thomas Bickerton, Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling, Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi, and Bishop Héctor Burgos-Núñez.
The NEJ Committee on Episcopacy, led by Judi Keniston, worked many hours before and during the Jurisdictional Conference, aided by research and recommendations by the NEJ Boundaries Committee, to configure the new episcopal areas for the 2024-2028 quadrennium. They also explored possible new adjustments if the 2028 General Conference requires the NEJ and other jurisdictions to further reduce their number of episcopal areas due to financial and missional reasons.
Judi Kenaston, chair of the COE, offered her appreciation for the committee who, while not all in agreement, “listened deeply and in holy ways.”
“You are represented well on the NEJ COE,” she said.
Kenaston also said the shared bishop will serve in a conference that borders the SEJ and “we look at this as an assignment, not coverage.”
Episcopal assignments will be announced Friday morning.