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BY MELISSA LAUBER
UMCONNECTION STAFF

"Called, competent, compassionate, committed to ministering to those in the margins," are the words being used to describe the Rev. Peggy Johnson, the Baltimore-Washington Conference candidate for bishop.

Johnson, who was endorsed by the annual conference at its annual session in May, will be a candidate in the episcopal elections, being held at the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference July 14-18 in Harrisburg, Pa.

One bishop will be elected to replace the retiring Bishop Violet Fisher. A 60 percent majority is needed for election.

If elected, Johnson said, "I would encourage congregations, first and foremost, to preach the Good News of Christ's salvation, to nurture people in the faith and then to live out that faith in mission and social witness. I would nurture the gifts for ministry of all Christians in this endeavor. This is done by prayer, proclamation and being a prophetic voice in the cause of justice for all."

The jurisdictional conference, which will meet at the Harrisburg Hilton, draws together 252 delegates from the 13 annual conferences (10 episcopal areas) located in the area from Maine south to West Virginia.

Thirty-two delegates and reserve delegates representing the Baltimore-Washington Conference will attend.

The United Methodist Church is made up of five of these regional jurisdictions in the United States and seven central conferences in other parts of the world.

"Lifting up bishops for the ministry of the church is a Holy Spirit-filled process bathed in prayer and discernment," said Bishop John Schol. "I am continually amazed at how the body of Christ senses what the church needs and prayerfully makes decisions that are needed for that time and moment. But this should not surprise me. God is present when faithful people gather to do the work of the church."

In addition to electing bishops, jurisdictional conferences are responsible for establishing the bound-aries of the annual conferences.

At the upcoming session, Northeastern Jurisdictional delegates will vote on a change in boundaries that creates a new episcopal area and a new annual conference by combining all or portions of the North Central New York, Troy, Western New York and Wyoming annual conferences.

In 2007, members of these conferences voted to ask the Jurisdictional Conference to align the Pennsylvania churches of the Wyoming Annual Conference with those of the Central Pennsylvania Annual Conference and that the Vermont churches of the Troy Annual Conference be aligned with the New England Annual Conference.

If approved by the jurisdiction, the new structure would be implemented in 2010, said the Rev. Rodney Smothers, a Baltimore-Washington Conference pastor who serves on the jurisdictional boundaries committee.

The affected conferences have already begun to address issues of structure, policies, programs and practices, Smothers said. The plan would reduce the number of bishops in the jurisdiction from 10 to nine.

In addition, delegates will consider a number of other issues and hear reports on topics such as the Volunteers in Mission programs, training opportunities, and the Northeastern Multi-Ethnic Center.

"There will also be outstanding worship experiences, but the main point of the agenda is the election of bishops," said Mary Baldridge, who represents the Baltimore-Washington Conference on the Women's Division of the General Board of Global Ministries.

"We will do a lot of listening as we divide into groups to interview each candidate," she said.

People being considered for the episcopacy are nominated by an annual conference, or they can be endorsed by a caucus in the denomination, said Sandra Ferguson, who represents the Baltimore-Washington Conference on the jurisdiction's episcopacy committee.

When the balloting begins, the first person to receive 60 percent of the votes will become a bishop, said Ferguson, who stressed that the election is a process of discernment and that campaigning is not allowed.

"This process really has been designed to provide opportunities for the Holy Spirit to act," she said.

The Rev. Marcus Matthews, the former director of connectional ministries of the Baltimore-Washington Conference, was elected on the first ballot in 2004, Ferguson said.

However, it may take several ballots for someone to achieve the required number of votes. The record for lengthy elections was set in 1980 when Bishop Calvin McConnell was elected in the Western Jurisdiction on the 47th ballot.

Once the new bishop has been elected, the bishops in the jurisdiction will be assigned to their areas. Ferguson and the Rev. David Argo, superintendent of the Washington-Columbia District, will serve on the committee that makes these assignments.

The assignments for bishops become effective Sept. 1.

For more information about the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference, visit www.nejumc.org. The July session will be covered on the conference Web site at www.bwcumc.org.