{"id":5944,"date":"2015-02-24T17:24:44","date_gmt":"2015-02-24T21:24:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=5944"},"modified":"2015-07-29T14:26:32","modified_gmt":"2015-07-29T18:26:32","slug":"bishop-schol-to-visit-delaware-bay-district-22615","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/?p=5944","title":{"rendered":"Bishop Schol to Visit Delaware Bay District (2\/26\/15)"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"Bishop<\/a>Bishop John Schol (presiding bishop of our Greater New Jersey Annual Conference) is traveling throughout the conference’s 9 districts to meet with clergy and laity.\u00a0 This is a chance to ask questions and to get to know the Bishop better.<\/p>\n

Bishop Schol will be at the West Park UMC in Bridgeton on Thursday Feb. 26.\u00a0 He will meet with the clergy between 9AM and noon, and then meet with the laity between between 7 and 9PM.<\/p>\n

Catch up with Bishop Schol at the West Park UMC, 625 Shiloh Pike, Bridgeton, NJ 08302-1452.<\/p>\n

\n\t\t\t\t\t
Due to concerns about the snowy weather, the bishop will not be able to hold the evening session with the laity.\u00a0 The 7-9PM session is cancelled.<\/span><\/div><\/div>\n

 <\/p>\n

\n

Bishop Schol recently posted the following message on the Greater NJ Annual Conference website.<\/span>\u00a0 This isn’t directly related to his visit to the districts, but it’s likely to be a topic of discussion…<\/em><\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

Dear Sisters and Brothers in Christ,<\/span><\/p>\n

Grace and peace to you in the name of Jesus Christ! I believe God has an exciting plan for our growth in faith and congregations as we humble ourselves, develop God-sized vision, lead\u00a0courageously\u00a0and serve faithfully. I am seeing renewed signs in our spiritual leaders and congregations.<\/span><\/p>\n

I have just returned from a College of Bishops meeting and want to update you on some of the important things we are working on. Within the United Methodist Church,\u00a0there\u00a0are\u00a0Colleges\u00a0of Bishops and\u00a0a\u00a0Council of Bishops. The Council of Bishops is the world-wide gathering of 68 active bishops and more than 70 retired bishops. A College of Bishops is the regional body of bishops.\u00a0As the bishop assigned to GNJ, I participate\u00a0in the Northeastern Jurisdiction College of Bishops which includes the nine bishops serving in the northeastern part of the United States.<\/span><\/p>\n

At these meetings we discuss and work on how we will strengthen the church in the northeast to make disciples and grow vital congregations to transform the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

The number of bishops in a region is determined by the number of church members in that region. The number of members in the\u00a0Northeastern Jurisdiction may slip below the number of members required for nine bishops. If this occurs, we will go from nine active bishops to eight active bishops. To accommodate fewer bishops, conferences are sometimes linked together and served by one bishop, much like a two point charge or one pastor serving two congregations. We already have one such arrangement in the Northeastern Jurisdiction in which one bishop serves both the Eastern Pennsylvania and the Peninsula Delaware\u00a0Conferences. We will know later this year if we will need to reduce by one bishop in 2016. I will keep you informed as I learn new information.<\/span><\/p>\n

While such challenges create anxiety for some, others see this as an opportunity for clarity\u00a0and\u00a0a renewed call to the mission.\u00a0There are\u00a0creative\u00a0possibilities\u00a0for\u00a0how we deal with\u00a0this\u00a0challenge. Your\u00a0College of\u00a0Bishops\u00a0is\u00a0appropriately\u00a0addressing this challenge\u00a0and are focusing on what we will do to strengthen congregations, conferences and the jurisdiction. I invite you into the same spirit within your\u00a0congregation as\u00a0we serve\u00a0together as a conference.<\/span><\/p>\n

Attached\u00a0is a report that the College of Bishops reviewed about episcopal area supervision. An episcopal area is the conference(s) served by a bishop. It will provide for you a comparison of conferences within the jurisdiction. I commend it\u00a0for\u00a0your review so that you\u00a0may\u00a0better understand our jurisdiction and GNJ. Click here<\/span>\u00a0to read and download the report.<\/strong><\/a><\/span><\/p>\n

You may have already known that Greater New Jersey is a diverse conference, but you may not have known how that diversity has strengthened us in comparison to other conferences in the Northeast.\u00a0Some of the steps we have made over the last few years have strengthened our financial position and increased our vitality in comparison to our peers.\u00a0From the study, you will see that GNJ has laid the foundation for the future.<\/span><\/p>\n

What\u2019s most important for us now is to stay focused on our mission to make disciples of Christ for the transformation of the world.<\/span><\/p>\n

Keep the faith!<\/span><\/p>\n

John Schol, Bishop<\/span>
\n The United Methodist Church<\/span>
\n Greater New Jersey<\/span><\/p>\n

\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Bishop John Schol (presiding bishop of our Greater New Jersey Annual Conference) is traveling throughout the conference’s 9 districts to meet with clergy and laity.\u00a0 This is a chance to ask questions and to get to know the Bishop better. Bishop Schol will be at the West Park UMC in Bridgeton on Thursday Feb. 26.\u00a0 […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,15],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5944","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-evann","category-go-community"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5944"}],"version-history":[{"count":11,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8125,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5944\/revisions\/8125"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5944"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5944"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/pitmanumc.org\/wp\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5944"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}