| Council of Bishops coming to BWC BY ERIK ALSGAARDUMCONNECTION STAFF The United Methodist Council of Bishops, a group of more than 140 men and women who make up the top clergy leaders in the nearly 10 million-member denomination, will meet in the Washington, D.C., area Nov. 2-7. The council comprises 50 active bishops in the United States, 18 active bishops in Europe, Asia and Africa, plus 75 retired bishops worldwide, according to the United Methodist News Service. A full agenda awaits the bishops upon their arrival in Washington. The meetings are open to the public with limited seating. Executive sessions, however, are closed. The Memorial Service will be Sunday, Nov. 2, at 4 p.m., held at Asbury UMC in Washington. Bishop Felton Edwin May, episcopal leader of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, and his wife Phyllis May will host the meeting. Bishop May organized an ad-hoc task force six months ago to prepare for the arrival of the bishops, providing everything from transportation to hospitality, nurses and doctors, to the ability to cash checks. We will give the council a Washington experience, said Bishop May, noting that several members of Congress are being invited to inform the bishops about domestic and foreign policy issues Nov. 5. In addition, mission and ministry tours of locations in Washington and Baltimore are planned for bishops and their spouses throughout the week. Local churches have the opportunity to invite bishops to preach in their churches Nov. 2. Arrangements must be made in advance and transportation will be provided by congregations. The president of the council is Bishop Ruediger Minor, leader of the Eurasia Area, which covers eight time zones. His office is in Moscow. Bishop Minor is the first bishop from a former Soviet bloc country to lead the council, according to the news service. Bishops in The United Methodist Church are elected by the jurisdictional conferences in the United States and by the central conferences outside the U.S. The next jurisdictional conferences are scheduled for July 2004. The Northeastern Jurisdiction, of which the Baltimore-Washington Conference is part, will meet in Syracuse, N.Y., to elect new bishops. A bishop serves as a general superintendent of the entire church, giving oversight to the worldly and spiritual interests of the church, according to the news service. Bishops also have the responsibility to see that the rules and regulations developed by General Conference are carried out, though they themselves do not have voice or vote during the General Conference. Bishop May has served as bishop of the Washington Area since 1996 and has been a bishop for 20 years. He has announced his intention to retire in 2004. | 
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