Online Archives

By Melissa Lauber

Bishop John R. Schol was reappointed to serve for four more years as the episcopal leader of the Washington Area.

On July 18, the Episcopacy Committee of the Northeastern Jurisdiction of The United Methodist Church announced that Bishop Schol will resume leadership of the Baltimore-Washington Conference. The conference is made up of almost 700 churches in Maryland, Washington, D.C. and the panhandle of West Virginia.

The bishop accepted his assignment with thanksgiving. "I am grateful to be called to serve the Baltimore-Washington Conference, one of the most mission-minded, Christ-centered conferences in the denomination," he said.

The bishop said he "anticipates working with the people of the conference to build on opportunities and address on-going challenges."

When he came to the conference in 2004, Bishop Schol began to implement the Discipleship Adventure, a holistic spiritual journey that focuses on celebrating in worship, connecting as one, developing in faith, serving as Christ and sharing one's faith.

Under his leadership, the conference has grown 272 Acts 2 churches, which are bearing fruit in the areas of church membership, professions of faith, connectional giving and mission involvement.

The Discipleship Adventure is expected to continue to be developed in local congregations as the conference works to grow missions, disciples, spiritual leaders and churches for the transformation of the world.

"It's all about Christ and what we do to bring honor and glory to Jesus Christ," the bishop said. "My whole goal is to help that happen in the Baltimore-Washington Conference."

Following the announcement of his assignment, the bishop me t with the jurisdictional delegation to begin talking about what they might work on together in the next quadrennium. Together, they identified issues to strengthen the mission and ministry of the church.

During the next year Bishop Schol will also serve as president of the Northeastern Jurisdiction's College of Bishops and continue his leadership of the denomination's Shalom Zones.

He will be joined in his ministry by his wife Beverly Schol.

In other action, the jurisdiction's episcopacy committee assigned Bishop Peggy Johnson to the Philadelphia Area and Bishop Marcus Matthews, both former pastors in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, to the New York West Area.