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Editor’s note: This story has been updated to include information on a memorial service.
A UMNS Report
3:00 P.M. ET March 22, 2012
Former United Methodist Bishop Edward W. Paup passed away at the age of 66 on March 21. A UMNS file photo by Cassandra Heller.
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The Rev. Edward W. Paup, a former bishop of The United Methodist
Church and top executive of the denomination’s mission agency, died
March 21 after a long battle with a brain tumor.
“We know that through God, Ed was formed, called, ordained and
commissioned — and now has been called to rest. As resurrection people,
we hold fast to Jesus’ promise that there will be for each of us an
eternal home,” said West Ohio Area Bishop Bruce Ough, president of the
United Methodist Board of Global Ministries.
A memorial service will be held at 1 p.m. March 31 at First United
Methodist Church of Belen, N.M. Expressions of sympathy and memories of
Paup can be posted on the Noblin Funeral Home website.
He served as bishop of the Portland (Ore.) Area from 1996 to 2004
and bishop of the Seattle Area until 2008, when he resigned from the
episcopacy to become the top staff executive of the United Methodist
Board of Global Ministries.
He served only a year as the mission agency’s general secretary
before resigning from the position on Sept. 1, 2009, because of health
concerns. At that time, Ough said Paup had been diagnosed with a brain
tumor.
Born on Dec. 21, 1945, in Oil City, Pa., Paup graduated from
Lycoming College in Williamsport, Pa., in 1967 and was ordained a
deacon in the United Methodist Western Pennsylvania Annual (regional)
Conference in 1968. He transferred to the Rocky Mountain Conference a
year later, where he was ordained an elder in 1970, the year in which he
also earned a Master of Divinity degree from United Methodist-related
Iliff School of Theology in Denver.
He served as a pastor in Colorado in 1970-89; was superintendent of
the Utah/Western District in 1989-93 and was assistant to the bishop in
1993-96 before his own election as bishop in 1996. He was a general
and jurisdictional conference delegate in 1988, 1992 and 1996.
Paup served on the General Council on Ministries in 1996-2004 and
was its president in 2000-04. He was a member of the World Methodist
Council Executive Committee in 1996-2001 and served on the United
Methodist Commission on Communication in 1992-96. Prior to being
elected to lead the Board of Global Ministries, Paup became a board
director in 2004 and was president of the United Methodist Committee on
Relief.
From 1996 to 2004, he was a board member at Alaska Pacific
University in Anchorage, Alaska; Willamette University in Salem, Ore.,
and the Northwest House of Theological Studies in Salem. He also served
on the board of trustees of the University of Puget Sound in Tacoma,
Wash.
Paup is survived by his wife, Carol; three daughters and five grandchildren.
“We keep his wife, family, and all who love and grieve over him in
our hearts,” Ough said. “May God grant them strength and assurance of
God's promise and presence. We remember the words of Psalm 126, ‘May
those who go out weeping come home with shouts of joy.’”
News media contact: Linda Bloom, New York, (646) 369-3759 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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