Bishop-elect John
Michael Lowry
|
The Rev. John Michael Lowry of San Antonio has been elected a bishop by the South Central Jurisdictional Conference of The United Methodist Church.
Lowry, 58, executive director of new church development and
transformation of the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, was elected
July 18. He will fill one of the vacancies created in the denomination's
South Central College of Bishops by the retirements of two bishops and
the death of another.
The new bishops are being elected by 297
delegates attending the conference. Lowry will become one of 11 active
bishops serving one of the episcopal areas in the eight state
jurisdiction. The South Central Jurisdiction is home to 1.8 million United Methodists in Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas.
A consecration service for the three new bishops will be held at 10:30 a.m. July 19 at First United Methodist Church in downtown Dallas.
An episcopal assignment committee is already considering where
Lowry and the other active bishops in the jurisdiction will serve for
the next four years. Their assignments will be effective Sept. 1.
Endorsed by the Southwest Texas Annual Conference, Lowry was elected on the 11th ballot, receiving 189 of 295 votes cast.
While the South Central Jurisdictional Conference is occurring,
four other United Methodist jurisdictional conferences are also meeting
to elect bishops.
A United Methodist bishop is elected for life and, although
eight years is the standard term for a bishop to serve in an episcopal
area, it is not unusual for a bishop to be assigned to one area for 12
years for “missional reasons.”
Lowry says that a bishop needs to be the spiritual leader
"casting a vision for God's people and God's kingdom that is really
inclusive." Most of the people the church makes decisions about are not
in the church, he said.
Evangelism and social holiness are "the two towering emphases the church has to be engaged in," Lowry said.
Reflecting on his spiritual development, Lowry said he quit the
church at 18 and went through an agnostic phase. He enrolled in a Quaker College
and in a class about Christian beliefs "with all the cynicism an
18-year-old can have." The class and the reading of works of
intellectual, religious thinkers led to a "dramatic conversion."
Lowry saw law school and seminary and the ordained ministry as his life choice, but "that call was very clear in my life."
Bishops are charged by the church’s Book of Discipline
to "guard the faith, order, liturgy, doctrine and discipline of the
church" and "lead all persons entrusted to their oversight in worship,
in the celebration of the sacraments, and in their mission of witness
and service in the world." They are also charged "to be prophetic voices
and courageous leaders in the cause of justice for all people."
A jurisdictional conference has the following power and duties:
- To promote the evangelistic, educational, missionary and
benevolent interests of the church and to provide for interests and
institutions within their boundaries.
- To elect bishops.
- To establish and constitute jurisdictional conference boards as auxiliaries to the general boards of the church.
- To determine the boundaries of annual conferences.
- To make rules and regulations for the administration of the church's work within the jurisdiction.
- To appoint a committee on appeals.
The United Methodist Church was created in 1968 by a merger of the
Evangelical United Brethren and Methodist churches. Methodists elected
their bishops at one national gathering until 1940, when the
jurisdictional system was instituted. Bishops in the EUB church were
elected at one national gathering until 1968.
News media contact: Linda Green, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.