By Jessica Brodie (South Carolina Conference)
LAKE JUNALUSKA, NC—The 2024 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference kicked off Wednesday morning with delegates approving a new structural plan for episcopal leadership.
The plan reduces the number of episcopal areas to 10 from 13, including sharing a bishop with another jurisdiction.
Presiding Bishop L. Jonathan Holston of the South Carolina Conference opened the business session as the body joined voices for “And Are We Yet Alive?” Bishop Holston lifted up those on the dais with him: Julie Hager Love, conference secretary, and
Kathy James, secretary-designate.
Realignment of Conferences within Episcopal Areas
Next, he called upon retired Bishop Ken Carder, who offered an opening prayer encouraging the church to be a living and visible sign of our new creation in Jesus Christ.
After a host of organizational motions – centering time, elections to jurisdictional conference leadership, adoption of the agenda, a welcome from Lake Junaluska Executive Director Ken Howle, ballot testing, and the presentation of the conference’s organizational plan – delegates heard from the Jurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy (COE) on the main business of this year’s gathering: a realignment of annual conferences within SEJ episcopal areas.
The Rev. Kim Ingram, Committee on Episcopacy chair, joined by Vice Chair Christine Dodson and Secretary Alex Shanks, shared their committee’s recommendation on the new boundaries for episcopal areas and the number of bishops available for assignment within the SEJ.
In January, the COE recommended reducing the number of episcopal areas within the jurisdiction to 10 from the current 13. This would involve several formerly separate episcopal areas joining to become episcopal areas containing more than one annual conference.
However, given the funding decrease in the wake of disaffiliations, the recent General Conference reduced the number of bishops serving across all five United States jurisdictions to 32 from the current 39. The Southeastern Jurisdiction will get nine bishops, Northeastern six, North Central six, South Central six, and Western Jurisdiction five.
The COE’s revised plan for the Southeastern Jurisdiction, approved Wednesday by the body, includes nine episcopal areas plus a 10th whose bishop will be shared between the SEJ and the NEJ.
The breakdown of the 10 episcopal areas for 2024-2028 will be:
- Alabama-West Florida and North Alabama
- North Georgia and South Georgia
- Kentucky, Central Appalachian Missionary, and Tennessee-Western Kentucky
- Virginia
- North Carolina
- Western North Carolina
- South Carolina
- Mississippi
- Florida
- Holston (sharing a bishop with NEJ)
Because of the change, no new episcopal elections will be held at this year’s conference. With the retirement of Bishop Bill McAlilly from the Tennessee-Western Kentucky Conference, that leaves 10 bishops to be assigned this year – three to in-jurisdiction, multi-conference episcopal areas, six to single conference areas and one to be shared between two jurisdictions.
The dual-jurisdictional sharing means the SEJ will get some help toward its reduced budget.
As the COE told the body, delegates will consider a 2025-2028 budget that reflects a decrease of $359,000 (24.7 percent) from the last quadrennium, but sharing a bishop with NEJ means the SEJ will split expenses, receiving $194,186 to cover half of the bishop’s office expenses.
The body approved these changes, and now the COE will focus its work on the assignment and discernment process, which Ingram said will incorporate data and missional needs from each area to accommodate both shared and unique circumstances. “Praise to the amazing spirit and discernment that happens with the guidance of the Holy Spirit,” Rev. Ingram said.
Bishop Kenneth Carter of the Western North Carolina Conference closed the morning session with a hope-filled, Christ-centered reflection on the state of the church amid the harsh realities of a changing denomination.
###