"Meditation – 60 Days of Prayer" for Wednesday, 20 July 2016 from The Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, United States

WEDNESDAY, JULY 20"Meditation – 60 Days of Prayer" for Wednesday, 20 July 2016 from The Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Today we hold in prayer all the UMC Bishops, many who are making preparations to move to a new episcopal area before September 1st. Spiritual leadership requires wisdom, courage, and an uncompromising will to take up the cross, lift up Jesus Christ, and surrender oneself to the revealed will of God.
Photo by Todd Seifert, Great Plains Conference
Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr. is consecrated July 16, 2016, as a new bishop in the South Central Jurisdiction during a ceremony at Wichita First United Methodist Church.

"Meditation – 60 Days of Prayer" for Wednesday, 20 July 2016 from The Upper Room in Nashville, Tennessee, United States
Click here to see a complete list of the episcopal assignments in the U.S. jurisdictions.


U.S. bishops begin new assignments on Sept. 1 by Linda Bloom, NEW YORK (UMNS)
Most of the 15 United Methodist clergy elected as new U.S. bishops last week will be packing their bags to move to a new home within their region.
After the elections, the denomination’s five U.S. jurisdictional conferences announced assignments for bishops in all 46 episcopal areas, effective Sept. 1. Fifteen bishops are retiring and another 22 are remaining in their current assignment areas for another four years.
New bishop Bob Farr will remain in the Missouri Conference, where he has been the director of congregational excellence.
The 2016 elections of new U.S. bishops sparked both interest and controversy.
Western Jurisdiction delegates meeting in Scottsdale, Arizona, elected the denomination’s first openly gay bishop, Bishop Karen Oliveto, despite a prohibition against gay clergy in the United Methodist Book of Discipline.
Reaction to her election has ranged from jubilation to disappointment to concern over how to uphold the current church doctrine.
At Lake Junaluska, North Carolina, the Southeastern Jurisdiction elected its first African-American woman as bishop when the Rev. Sharma Lewis was elected on the first ballot.
That vote helped propel The United Methodist Church into electing the most women in any new class of bishops in this denomination or its predecessor bodies. In total, jurisdictional delegates elected seven women, four of whom are African American.
Here are the episcopal assignments for the next four years, by conference. The names of new bishops are in bold.
Southeastern Jurisdiction

1. Alabama-West Florida: Bishop David Graves
2. Florida: Bishop Ken Carter
3. Holston: Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor
4. Kentucky and Red Bird Missionary: Bishop Leonard Fairley
5. Mississippi: Bishop James Swanson
6. Tennessee and Memphis: Bishop Bill McAlilly
7. North Alabama:
8. Western North Carolina: Bishop Paul Leeland
9. Virginia: Bishop Sharma Le Bishop Debra Wallace-Padgett
10. North Carolina: Bishop Hope Morgan Ward
11. North Georgia: Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson
12. South Carolina: Bishop Jonathan Holston
13. South Georgia: Bishop Lawson Bryanwis

The Southeastern Jurisdiction includes the states of Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.
South Central

1. Arkansas: Bishop Gary E. Mueller
2. Central Texas: Bishop J. Michael Lowry
3. Great Plains: Bishop Ruben Saenz Jr.
4. Louisiana: Bishop Cynthia Fierro Harvey
5. Missouri: Bishop Robert “Bob” Farr
6. North Texas: Bishop Michael McKee
7. Northwest Texas and New Mexico: Bishop Earl Bledsoe
8. Oklahoma and Oklahoma Indian Missionary: Bishop James G. “Jimmy” Nunn
9. Rio Texas: Bishop Robert C. Schnase
10. Texas: Bishop Scott J. Jones

The South Central Jurisdiction includes the states of Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
Western Jurisdiction

1. Pacific Northwest, Oregon-Idaho and Alaska Missionary: Bishop Elaine Stanovsky
2. California-Nevada: Bishop Minerva Carcaño
3. California-Pacific: Bishop Grant Hagiya
4. Desert Southwest: Bishop Robert Hoshibata
5. Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone: Bishop Karen Oliveto

The Western Jurisdiction includes the states of Alaska, Arizona, California, Colorado, Hawaii, Idaho, Montana, Nevada, Oregon, Utah, Washington and Wyoming.
North Central

1. Dakotas-Minnesota: Bishop Bruce Ough
2. Ohio East: Bishop Tracy S. Malone
3. Illinois Great Rivers: Bishop Frank Beard
4. Indiana: Bishop Julius Trimble
5. Iowa Area: Bishop Laurie Haller
6. Michigan Area: Bishop David Bard
7. Northern Illinois: Bishop Sally Dyck
8. Ohio West: Bishop Gregory V. Palmer
9. Wisconsin: Bishop Hee-Soo Jung

The North Central Jurisdiction includes the states of Illinois, Indiana, Iowa, Michigan, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio, South Dakota and Wisconsin.
Northeastern

1. Baltimore-Washington: Bishop LaTrelle Easterling
2. Eastern Pennsylvania and Peninsula-Delaware: Bishop Peggy A. Johnson
3. Greater New Jersey: Bishop John R. Schol
4. New England: Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar
5. New York: Bishop Thomas J. Bickerton
6. Susquehanna: Bishop Jeremiah J. Park
7. Upper New York: Bishop Mark J. Webb
8. West Virginia: Bishop Sandra L. Steiner Ball
9. Western Pennsylvania: Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi

The Northeastern Jurisdiction includes the states of Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia, as well as the District of Columbia.[Bloom is a United Methodist News Service multimedia reporter based in New York. Follow her athttps://twitter.com/umcscribe or contact her at (615)742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org]
Read: Romans 15:1-2; 2 Corinthians 5:15; Philippians 2:4Romans 15:1 So we who are strong have a duty to bear the weaknesses of those who are not strong, rather than please ourselves. 2 Each of us should please his neighbor and act for his good, thus building him up.

2 Corinthians 5:15 and that he died on behalf of all in order that those who live should not live any longer for themselves but for the one who on their behalf died and was raised.

Philippians 2:4 look out for each other’s interests and not just for your own.

Pray: “O Christ—I understand. The whole meaning of life is made plain. I am to follow you to no trifling cross but to this decisive cross on which I shall die—die to my own futile self-will in order to live to your free and strong self. Help me then from this moment to discipline my life to your will. Amen.”[E. Stanley Jones, How to Pray. Used by permission from Upper Room Books. All rights reserved. © 2015]

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