SEJ Finishes Balloting On First Day Elects 5 New Bishops

The Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference completed its voting on episcopal candidates. It took 10 ballots to elect the 5 new bishops that will serve the jurisdiction. Voting was completed prior to the dinner break.

The five elected bishop are (in the order elected):

• Bishop-elect Sharma Lewis, North Georgia Conference, ballot #1
• Bishop-elect David Graves, Holston Conference, ballot #4
• Bishop-elect Leonard Fairley, North Carolina Conference, ballot #7
• Bishop-elect Lawson Bryan, Alabama-West Florida Conference, Ballot #10
• Bishop-elect Sue Haupert-Johnson, Florida Conference, ballot #10

A consecration service for the five new bishops will be held at 10:00 a.m. EDT Friday, July 15, at Lake Junaluska. The ceremony can be watched live at the Lake Junaluska Conference and Retreat Center’s website.

Within the United States, local United Methodist churches are organized into numerous districts, dozens of annual conferences and five jurisdictions (regions). Thirteen active bishops now lead the 15 annual conferences that form the South Eastern Jurisdiction. The five elected today will replace five retiring bishops.

The states represented in this jurisdiction are: Alabama, Florida, Georgia, Kentucky, Mississippi, North Carolina, South Carolina, Tennessee and Virginia.

Rev. Tom Grieb the episcopal candidate from the Kentucky Conference withdrew his name from consideration prior to ballot #7 being taken.