Episcopal Elections 2022
Latest results and news coverage
United Methodists in the United States, the Philippines and Central and Southern Europe are meeting in November to elect and consecrate new bishops and assign bishops to specific regions or episcopal areas.
Bishops are the top clergy leaders of The United Methodist Church. This will be the first time since 2016 that new bishops have been elected for the church, which has more than 12 million members worldwide.
Delegates to the Central and Southern Europe Central Conference will meet Nov. 15-19 to elect a new bishop. Three new bishops will be elected in the Philippines Nov. 24-26. U.S. delegates elected 13 bishops Nov. 2-5.
Find election results, stories on the elected bishops and the latest news from United Methodist News below.
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The country director of mission in Southeast Asia was the third bishop elected at the Nov. 24-26 meeting.
The Rev. Ruby-Nell M. Estrella, treasurer of the Philippines Central Conference, was the second bishop elected at the Nov. 24-26 meeting.
The president of John Wesley College was elected on the sixth ballot. He will lead the Baguio Episcopal Area.
The district superintendent of Northwestern Switzerland was elected Nov. 18 on the fourth ballot, receiving 41 of 68 votes cast.
Even as The United Methodist Church faces mounting disaffiliations, those who plan to remain United Methodist are working together more across jurisdictional lines. Jurisdictional conferences also elected more women and more people of color as bishops.
Delegates elected Dottie Escobedo-Frank, the jurisdiction’s third Hispanic bishop, Nov. 4 on the 19th ballot.
The Rev. Cedrick D. Bridgeforth’s Nov. 4 election makes him the first openly gay African-American man to be elected a bishop in The United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Carlo A. Rapanut, assistant to the bishop in the Greater Northwest Episcopal Area, is the first Filipino American bishop in The United Methodist Church, and the first U.S. bishop who was ordained in a central conference.
The Rev. Dan Schwerin was the third and final bishop elected for The United Methodist Church's North Central Jurisdictional Conference. He received 100 votes of the 166 valid ballots cast Nov. 3, giving him the 60% needed to be elected.
The Rev. Robin Dease, who was a write-in candidate on the first ballot for bishop in The United Methodist Church’s Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, was elected Nov. 3 on the 25th ballot at Lake Junaluska, North Carolina. She received 206 votes, the exact number needed.
The Rev. Connie Mitchell Shelton, district superintendent in the Mississippi Conference, was elected Nov. 2 on the 12th ballot.
The Rev. Lanette Plambeck, a former intelligence analyst for the Army and the only endorsed candidate for bishop of the Iowa Annual Conference, was elected bishop on the third ballot at the North Central Jurisdictional Conference.
With his election on the third ballot, the Rev. Héctor A. Burgos-Núñez became the first Hispanic/Latino bishop elected in the jurisdiction.
The Rev. Laura Merrill was elected as a bishop along with two others on the first ballot in the South Central Jurisdictional Conference. The former church secretary received 99 votes.
The Rev. David Wilson, assistant to the bishop of the Oklahoma and Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference, was elected Nov. 2 on the first ballot, becoming the first Native American bishop in The United Methodist Church.
The Rev. Delores “Dee” Williamston, director of clergy excellence and assistant to the bishop of the Great Plains Conference, was elected on the first ballot with 141 votes.
The Rev. Kennetha Bigham-Tsai, chief connectional ministries officer for the Connectional Table, was the first to be elected on the first round of voting within the North Central Jurisdiction’s history.
The Rev. Thomas M. Berlin, lead pastor of Floris United Methodist Church in Herndon, Virginia, was elected Nov. 2 on the fourth ballot.
Both the Western Jurisdiction and Southeastern Jurisdiction found themselves addressing how bigotry has marred the bishop election process. The Western Jurisdiction held a highly unusual closed session.
A South Central Jurisdictional Conference delegate asked the jurisdiction’s college of bishops to address the conduct and status of three episcopal leaders he said had provided “promotion and support” to the breakaway Global Methodist Church.
After electing new bishops, the denomination’s U.S. jurisdictional conferences announced episcopal assignments, effective Jan. 1.
Learn more
United Methodists typically meet every four years to elect bishops to fill vacancies, as well as elect representatives to agency boards and commissions, adopt budgets for jurisdictional programs and do other business. Those gatherings follow the quadrennial meeting of General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly. The pandemic-driven postponements of General Conference have resulted in delays in the elections, which ordinarily would have occurred in 2020.
While United Methodists in the Philippines, United States and parts of Europe are electing bishops in November, leaders with the three African central conferences have stated that their areas will wait until after General Conference in 2024 to hold elections.
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