“Bishops are elected from the elders
and are set apart for a ministry of servant leadership, general oversight, and
supervision. As followers of Jesus
Christ, bishops are authorized to guard the faith, order, liturgy, doctrine,
and discipline of the Church. The role
and calling of the bishop is to exercise oversight and support of the Church
and its mission of making disciples of Jesus Christ for the transformation of
the world.” (Discipline ¶403.1)
Bishops (Episcopoi, or Overseers, in
Greek) are elected from among the (ordained) elders by Jurisdictional and
Central Conferences. (The number of
bishops in each Jurisdiction or Central Conference is determined by a formula. There are currently 46 active bishops in the
US and 20 outside the US.) In the United
States bishops are elected for life; some Central Conferences have term
episcopacy. Often candidates for bishop
receive official endorsements by the vote of their annual conferences, but any
elder can be elected a bishop.
Once elected, bishops serve the whole
Church, however, bishops are assigned to particular service (for four year
terms) in an Episcopal Area which may contain one or more annual
conferences. We are in the Iowa
Episcopal Area which includes the Iowa Annual Conference. The bishop currently assigned to our
Episcopal Area is Bishop Julius Trimble (pictured left.) For more information about Bishop Trimble go
to www.iaumc.org/pages/detail/1925.
At the Jurisdictional and Central
Conference level bishops are members of the College of Bishops. At the General Church level they are members
of the Council of Bishops. Retired
bishops are also members of the Council but only active bishops have vote. The Colleges and the Council elect their own
officers, including a president, however these officers also continue to serve
their own episcopal areas and have no unique authority over the Church beyond
that of other bishops. (There was a move,
which failed, at General Conference 2012 to provide for a “set aside” bishop
without assignment to an episcopal area to represent the whole Church.)
In addition to general oversight and representing
the whole Church, the particular duties of bishops include: their role in the
judicial process (which I explained in a previous article,) presiding over
Annual, Jurisdictional, Central, and General Conferences, consecrating, licensing,
commissioning, and ordaining clergy (and lay people to special service,) and
appointing clergy to their places of ministry.
Assisting the bishop in his or her
duties, particularly in appointing pastors, are District Superintendents (also
called Conference Superintendents.)
Superintendents are elders appointed by the bishop to assist in the oversight
of the whole annual conference in general, and have particular oversight of one
area of the annual conference called a District. (More about Districts in a future
article.) The Superintendents of the
annual conference (there may only be one) and the bishop meet together in what
is called the Cabinet. This is the
meeting in which clergy appointments and other matters of annual conference
leadership are discussed.
