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Twenty-one new bishops were elected by United Methodists in five simultaneous U.S. regional conferences in mid-July to replace those who were retiring. Delegates to jurisdictional conference include an equal number of clergy and lay people elected at annual conference the previous year.

The newly elected bishops, along with those already under appointment, were assigned to geographic areas for the next four years. They are elected for life.

Bishops are charged by the church's Book of Discipline to "lead and oversee the spiritual and temporal affairs" of the church and to "guard, transmit, teach, and proclaim, corporately and individually, the apostolic faith as it is expressed in Scripture and tradition, and, as they are led and endowed by the Spirit, to interpret that faith evangelically and prophetically."

South East
The Southeastern Jurisdiction is the most populous of the UM Church's five jurisdictions. The 556 delegates elected six new bishops. Their new assignments follow their name.

. Hope Morgan Ward (Mississippi Area) was the superintendent of the Raleigh (NC) district. She was conference director of connectional ministries from 1997-2001 and has served as pastor of Soapstone UM Church and Broadway UM Church. This is the first time the Southeastern Jurisdiction has elected a woman as the first bishop-elect. She is the second woman to be elected as a bishop in the jurisdiction.

. William H. Willimon (Birmingham Area) was dean of the chapel and professor of Christian ministry at Duke University for the past 20 years. He is the author of 50 books, serves as editor-at-large for The Christian Century, The Whittenburg Door, Pulpit Digest, and Preaching, and is editor and writer for the Pulpit Resource. He has been a delegate to three Southeastern Jurisdictional conferences and two General Conferences.

. James Swanson (Holston Area) had been the superintendent of the Savannah District of the South Georgia Conference since 2001. Raised in the African Methodist Episcopal Church and ordained in the Church of God, Swanson became pastor of the Statesboro Circuit in the South Georgia Conference of the UM Church in 1981.

. Alfred W. Gwinn Jr. (Raleigh Area) was pastor of Lexington (Ky.) First UM Church. Before being appointed to Lexington First, Gwinn was pastor of Lexington's Centenary UM Church and was the superintendent of the Lexington district. He also chaired the conference board of ordained ministry.

. Richard J. Wills, Jr. (Nashville Area) had been pastor of Christ United Methodist Church in Ft. Lauderdale, Florida, since 1986. He has served on the large church initiative steering committee of the UM Board of Discipleship, and the conference and jurisdictional committees on episcopacy, and has been a delegate to General Conference and the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference.

. Mary Virginia "Lindy" Taylor (Columbia Area) was the superintendent of the Cleveland District of the Holston Conference. She has been a member of the conference Board of Ordained Ministry and a delegate to six General Conferences and six Southeastern Jurisdictional Conferences.

The conference also celebrated the retirement of six bishops. They are Bishops Kenneth L. Carder, Ray W. Chamberlain, Jr., Marion M. Edwards, Robert E. Fannin, William Morris, and Joe E. Pennel, Jr.

North Central
The North Central region includes North and South Dakota, Minnesota, Iowa, Wisconsin, Illinois, Michigan, Indiana, Illinois, and Ohio. The 328 delegates elected 3 new bishops.

. Hee-Soo Jung (Chicago) had been superintendent of the Nicolet District of the Wisconsin Annual Conference since 1997. From 1994 to 1997 he chaired the department of religion and philosophy at Kangnam University in Seoul, Korea. Jung was a delegate to the 2000 and 2004 General Conferences and the North Central Jurisdictional Conferences.

. Deborah Kiesey (Dakotas Area) was the superintendent of the Waterloo district in Iowa. She has served the Iowa Conference as a delegate to five General Conferences and five North Central Jurisidictional Conferences. Kiesey is a member of the UM Commission on the Status and Role of Women and is on the faculty for the University of Dubuque School of Theology licensing school and the Iowa Conference's School for Lay Ministry.

. Sally Dyck (Minnesota Area) was pastor of Garfield Memorial United Methodist Church in Pepper Pike, Ohio, where she has served since 2003. She was superintendent of the Wooster District in the East Ohio Conference from 1997 to 2003. A director of the UM Board of Global Ministries, she has been a delegate to General Conference four times and to the North Central Jurisdictional Conference six times.

Three retiring bishops were recognized during the conference. They were Bishops Sharon Zimmerman Rader, C. Joseph Sprague, and Woodie W. White.

North East
The 288 delegates to the Northeastern Jurisdiction come from Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia. The delegates elected six new bishops.

. Marcus Matthews (Philadelphia Area) was district superintendent of the Washington West District. From 1991-99, he was council director for the Baltimore-Washington Conference. He has been a member of the General Council on Ministries, Africa University Development Committee, World Methodist Council Executive Committee, and Black Methodists for Church Renewal.

. Sudarshana Devadhar (New Jersey Area) was born in India, served as a deacon with the Church of South India, and was a lecturer at Karnataka Theological College in Mangalore in the 1970s before coming to the United States. He has served as district superintendent for the Ontario District, North Central New York Conference, since 1996. He has been a member of the UM Commission on Christian Unity and a delegate to three General Conferences.

. Jeremiah J. Park (New York) was born in Korea and was Palisades District Superintendent in New Jersey. He has also served as council director and associate council director for Northern New Jersey, as well as associate director of the Northeastern Jurisdiction's Multi-Ethnic Center for Ministry. He is a member of the Advisory Commission on Faith-Based Initiatives for the Governor of New Jersey.

. John R. Schol (Washington Area) was the pastor of West Chester (Pa.) United Methodist Church. He is the former executive in charge of Communities of Shalom for the UM Board of Global Ministries. He organized the denomination's Communities of Shalom initiative, a congregational and community development strategy implemented in 530 sites in the United States and in the African countries of Zimbabwe and Ghana.

. Jane Allen Middleton (Harrisburg Area) had been district superintendent of the Connecticut/New York District since 1999 and has been dean of the New York Conference cabinet since 2003. Middleton, a director of the General Council on Ministries, served as a General Conference delegate in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004, and as a delegate to the 2001 World Methodist Conference in Brighton, England.

. Thomas J. Bickerton (Pittsburgh Area) has been the Northern District superintendent in the West Virginia Conference since 1998. He is a member of the UM Commission on Communication and previously served on the denomination's Commission on Archives and History and Commission on the Status and Role of Women. He was a General Conference delegate in 1996, 2000, and 2004.

Six retiring bishops were recognized during the conference. They were Bishops Neil Irons, Hae-Jong Kim, Felton May, S. Clifton Ives, Susan Hassinger, and Alfred Johnson.

Both Hassinger and Johnson were granted early retirement during the conference. Johnson also acknowledged during the meeting that a complaint had been filed against him and that he intended to follow denominational procedure in dealing with the complaint. The nature of the complaint has not been specified.

South Central
Fifteen annual conferences are included in the South Central Jurisdiction,
which spans eight states: Arkansas, Kansas, Louisiana, Missouri, Nebraska, New Mexico, Oklahoma and Texas. The 340 delegates elected four new bishops.

. Robert W. Hayes Jr. (Oklahoma Area) was the treasurer of the Texas Annual Conference. Prior to that post, he was the superintendent of the Houston Southwest District and the pastor of Riverside UM Church in Houston. He was endorsed by the Texas Annual Conference delegation to the General and Jurisdictional conferences, and Black Methodists for Church Renewal, South Central Jurisdiction.

. Robert C. Schnase (Missouri Area) was senior pastor of First UM Church, McAllen, Texas, a post he held since 1989. A delegate to the 2000 and 2004 General Conferences, Schnase also served as a delegate to the South Central Jurisdictional Conferences in 1996, 2000, and 2004. He is a member of the UM Board of Higher Education and Ministry.

. Scott J. Jones (Kansas Area) was director of the Center for the Advanced Study and Practice of Evangelism at Perkins School of Theology. He has been a member of the Joint International Commission for Dialogue between the Roman Catholic Church and the World Methodist Council since 1996. He was a delegate to General Conference and the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in 1996, 2000, and 2004.

. Charles N. Crutchfield (Arkansas Area) was senior pastor of Central UM Church in Albuquerque, New Mexico, where he had served since 1997. From 1994 to 1997, he was superintendent of the El Paso District of the New Mexico Conference. A delegate to the General Conference and the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in 1992, 1996, 2000, and 2004, he has also been a delegate to the World Methodist Conference and the Institute for World Evangelism.

Four retiring bishops were recognized during the conference. They were Bishops Bruce Blake, Alfred "Fritz" Mutti, Alfred Norris, and William Oden.

West
The Western Jurisdiction is made up of eight annual conferences spread across Alaska, California, Hawaii, Washington, Oregon, Idaho, Montana, Colorado, Utah, Arizona, Nevada, Wyoming, Guam and Saipan. The 88 delegates elected 2 new bishops.

. Robert Hoshibata (Portland Area), a native Hawaiian of Japanese decent, was district superintendent in Seattle, Washington, and dean of the cabinet for the Pacific-Northwest Conference. Hoshibata has been a member of the General Council on Ministries and the UM Board of Global Ministries. He has been a delegate to the 1996, 2000, and 2004 General and Western Jurisdictional conferences.

. Minerva Carcano (Phoenix Area) is the first Hispanic clergywoman to be elected a United Methodist bishop. She was the superintendent of the Metropolitan District of the Oregon-Idaho Conference. From 1996 to 2001, she served as director of the Mexican-American Program, the Hispanic Studies Program, and adjunct faculty at Perkins School of Theology, Southern Methodist University in Dallas. She was a delegate to the 1996 and 2004 General Conferences.

In addition to electing new bishops, the conference also recognized the retirements of Bishops William W. Dew, Jr. and Elias G. Galvan.

Adapted from United Methodist News Service.

Liberals join scholarly attack
on The Da Vinci Code
By Richard Ostling

The religiously themed novel The Da Vinci Code has reigned at or near first place on best-seller lists for more than a year, bringing joy to author Dan Brown and to publisher Doubleday-but an unusual degree of scholarly dismay.

The reason for dismay is the novel's claim of factual grounding for its contention that fraud underlies the New Testament, and Christian history and doctrine. Scholars belatedly realized that people might be taking those charges seriously.

Early laments were issued by Catholic and Protestant conservatives, but now they're coming from decidedly liberal quarters, for example cover stories of two magazines:

The Christian Century, a liberal Protestant magazine, published "Gospel Secrets?: Dismantling The Da Vinci Code" by Mark S. Burrows, a United Church of Christ historian at Andover Newton Theological School in Massachusetts.

"Almost everything Brown asserts or implies as fact is misleading or mistaken. Mostly the latter," Burrows wrote. He feared most readers will lack the knowledge or patient reading required "to sort occasional fact from overwhelming fiction."

More surprising, The Fourth R, the magazine of the left-wing Jesus Seminar, which usually debunks New Testament history, debunks the novel in "The Da Vinci Fraud." Author Robert M. Price, a favorite author in secular humanist circles, said Brown's claim of factual basis "is part of the fiction."

Though they and others target numerous historical details, the central disputes involve these assertions made by Brown's scholarly characters:

. Belief in Jesus' divinity was invented in the fourth century. (Scripture scholars date it to the first century.)

. The four New Testament Gospels became authoritative in the fourth century. (Historians say the process was complex, but they were basically accepted in the third century).

. The Dead Sea Scrolls and writings of the Gnostic movement provide the earliest Christian records. (Experts say the scrolls predate Christianity and the Gnostic materials came a century or more too late, with one possible exception).

. Jesus married Mary Magdalene and sired a royal Franco-Jewish bloodline. (Scholars see no proof for this legend.)

Price's complaints are particularly interesting, since he welcomes radical thinking. He said Brown's "gross historical errors" include something "any seminary freshman knows (or used to know, until Green politics and encounter groups took over the theological curriculum)."

He referred to the novel's assertion that the fourth-century Roman Emperor Constantine and bishops under his control scuttled the original belief that Jesus was a mere mortal and made him into a God who only appeared to be human.

Price noted the first-century belief that Jesus the divine Word "became flesh" (John 1:14). He said orthodox Christians believed "he shared the same divine nature as the Father, not that he was no longer to be considered human." The church's later creeds "only made clearer the true humanity of the God-man."

Price said he himself is uneasy with Christianity's creeds but they shouldn't be misrepresented. With similar liberal outlook, Price said it's always possible that Jesus was married or "romantically involved," but mere possibility isn't probability and gets us nowhere. "He might have been a space alien, too. Some think he was. But historians do not."

In a parallel objection, Burrows attacked the plot about early Christians making Jesus into God to expand their own power. "The historical evidence for the claim is nonexistent," he asserted.

Brown's characters say Christianity barred Gnostic writings from the Bible because they presented Jesus in very human terms. But Burrows insisted the exact opposite is true: The Jesus of the Gospels is very earthly, whereas the later Gnostics preached radical separation between a benign spiritual realm and the evil material world.

Brown declines interviews to respond to critics, perhaps figuring the sales figures are all the answer he needs. The forthcoming Da Vinci movie and future Brown novels following his successful skeptical formula will fuel further debate.

Richard N. Ostling, a religion writer for the Associated Press, was formerly a senior correspondent for Time magazine and was the religion writer for many years. Reprinted with permission of the Associated Press.

One desire: Aldersgate focuses on worship

Lively preaching, colorful banners, and heartfelt worship to God have always been hallmarks of Aldersgate, United Methodism's annual conference to promote Spirit-filled living in the Wesleyan tradition. This year's late-July event was no exception, as more than 1,500 United Methodists gathered in Lexington, Kentucky, to enthusiastically worship God with uplifted hands and vibrant worship music, while some even danced in a celebratory conga-line.

"Worship is more than the lifting of hands. It is more than the clapping of hands," the Rev. Kirbyjon Caldwell told the crowded ballroom. Caldwell, senior pastor of Windsor Village United Methodist Church in Houston, continued, "It is more than prostrating ourselves. It is more than praise. It is more than prayers. It is more than the forms and manifestations. It's an attitude. It is a lifestyle. Let it become the very essence of our being."

As pastor of the largest UM congregation in the United States, Caldwell told the participants about how he is being transformed by studying the book of Psalms. "I must tell you that I have really grown in my understanding of worship and my appreciation for worship and in my ability to worship," he said. "When you grow in your understanding of worship, and when you grow in your appreciation for worship, and when you grow in your willingness and ability to worship then you grow in godliness. Because those who worship him must worship him in spirit and truth."

Caldwell emphasized the eternal importance of becoming a worshipper. "Your purpose in life is to glorify God," he said. "If you are a pastor or a teacher, that is your calling. But that is not your purpose. When you die and go to heaven, you won't need to teach or preach up there-but you will continue to worship."

He continued, "All mothers, all daughters, all fathers, all parents, husbands, wives-that is not your purpose in life. That may be your station in life but your purpose is to glorify God. And the highest form of glory is worship."

Other keynote speakers included the Rev. Jacquie Leveron of St. Andrews UM Church in Fort Lauderdale; the Rev. Blake Lorenz of Pinecastle UM Church in Orlando; the Rev. Terry Teykl of Renewal Ministries in Houston, and the Rev. Rick Bonfim, UM evangelist from Georgia.

Aldersgate offered more than 30 workshops dealing with subjects such as Pentecostalism's Methodist roots, healing our disappointments with God, praying with accuracy, and physical healing.

Prayers and Scripture were integral parts of the seminars and sermons. Days began with prayer opportunities and concluded with an invitation for prayer at the end of each evening service. Prayer teams ministered to the sick, anointing them with oil. Aldersgate even sponsored a 24-hour prayer room.

"You should not be an appendix to the church. Your focus on prayer and the power of the Holy Spirit as the cornerstone of the church should be at the center of the church," Bishop James King of Kentucky told the assembly during his Sunday morning sermon. "What I want to say to you is, 'Don't grow weary in well doing. The church needs you. Thank you for the leadership that you are giving.'"

The annual Aldersgate gathering attempts to educate the UM Church on the work of the Holy Spirit, provide an encouraging environment for the use of spiritual gifts, and promote spiritual renewal in the denomination. The event-which has become United Methodism's largest annual gathering-is sponsored by Aldersgate Renewal Ministries (ARM), an affiliate of the denomination's Board of Discipleship, headquarted in Good-lettesville, Tennessee.

-Good News.
Photos courtesy of Aldersgate Renewal Ministries

Q&A weith Martha Williamson creator of "Touched by an Angel"

For nine seasons, "Touched By An Angel" ruled Sunday night television like football does on Monday nights. For CBS, it was the touch of Martha Williamson that took a disaster-waiting-to-happen idea and turned it into top ten hit. Known around CBS as the "Jesus Girl" because she went to church, Williamson was brought in to discuss a pilot about angels that was so bad she originally turned it down. Later, however, she came to realize that this was the opportunity that she had been praying for.

"I know how to make this show," she told the network executives, "but I am not going to do this. If you want a show about angels, you have to do a show about God, and if you do a show about God, you have to realize that you are messing with 24 million people's individual opinions of who God is. There is only one way that we can do this successfully and that is to use the Bible as our source."

Writers don't usually have the opportunity to speak to network brass with such bravado, but Williamson concluded she had nothing to lose. "They were desperate," she recalls with a laugh.

Martha Williamson spoke to Good News editor Steve Beard about the release of the first complete season of "Touched By An Angel" on DVD. Raised a United Methodist in Denver, Williamson humorously confessed that she caused a stir early on as president of her church's Methodist Youth Fellowship by using a gambling casino as a fund-raising tool. If you watch closely, however, you will notice that the church in a number of the episodes is named Washington Park-a grateful nod to the congregation of her childhood. What follows is a excerpt of the conversation.

What is it that 22 million Americans saw in "Touched by Angel" that TV critics didn't?
For one thing, there are a whole lot of people who live between New York and Los Angeles. And a lot of them-and I would venture to say that most of them-are, in fact, people of faith. There were a lot of people who were getting tired of what they were seeing on television-not unlike today, I might add. Ten years ago, there were a lot of people who had literally stopped watching television or who were watching cable or buying videos, particularly families with children. They were just disgusted with what they were seeing..

There are far more people of faith out there than network television ever wanted to acknowledge. Those people were getting very tired of always seeing themselves depicted only in the negative. If you ever saw someone who believed in God or was a "Christian," they were the fanatic, the lunatic, the mass murder, the abusive parent, and usually an idiot. I was tired of it.

What was the first season like?
I look at that particular first season as sort of a map-watching a show find its way through. They only gave us six episodes to do. They did not think the show would survive. Then it sort of hung on and they said, "Ok, here is a seventh. Now you can do eight and nine-you can do two more." We were just scrambling. Sometimes the shows that you will see on these DVDs were written in a week because that was all the time that the network would give us.

Is it fair to say that CBS was more startled by the success than you were?
Absolutely. I knew we would survive if they would give us a chance. I think CBS was so busy, so preoccupied and distracted with other problems that they did not pay too much attention to us. One day they turned around and said, "Good heavens, the show is still there."

Did they ever send anyone to the set to rein you in?
No.

You did not speak of Jesus Christ explicitly. I have heard Christians complain about that. But it seemed to me that once a week you got a shot to say, "God loves you and you are not alone."
That's right. I can tell you that there were a lot of letters that said you should use the name of Jesus on the show. My answer was this: We use the words of Jesus, we used the heart of Jesus, and you can see Jesus there if you look really carefully. But I wasn't hired to do a show about Jesus. They hired me to do a show about angels. And they wanted these angels to fly and have wings. We are darn lucky that we were able to put any of this in there at all.

Had you gone in and tried to plug these things in a belligerent way, I assume you would have been fired.

You put your finger on the challenge that any Christian in entertainment has always had. If any Christian writer or producer walked into a network and said, "I want to do a Christian television show. I want to do a show about God's love and a show about Jesus," they would have laughed you out. You probably would not have even gotten the appointment in the first place. The secret to influencing the content of network television is to be prepared when the opportunity comes..

Jesus changed the world with love. He didn't beat people over the head. I just knew that I had to be good at what I did, remain faithful and trust that when the opportunity came that I would be ready. And I would be blessed to recognize it. That is a story in itself because I originally turned down "Touched By An Angel." The original show that they had in mind was so horrible I thought, "I can't do this." That is when God said, "Hello, opportunity knocking. Knock, knock, knock. Hello, wake up!"

The network had the notion that people die and become angels, correct?
I had to tell them angels are not recycled dead people. Angels are created beings by God. They said, "Well did you just make that up?" They literally thought that I had made that up. I said, "No, that is in the Bible." They said, "Well, what else is in the Bible?"

You have to remember that they didn't care if I used the Bible as my source material or if used "I Dream of Jeannie" as my source material. What they cared about was money. They wanted to know how much it was going to cost to retool this show. And I said it will cost more if I have to go away and make up a brand new series than if we just look at the Bible, which is already here and tells us what angels are.

What was the reaction at CBS?
What was really interesting to me was how many network executives would take me aside privately and tell me that they have tried to keep a professional distance from the show but personally they were deeply moved by the content of the show.

Did you always believe the show would be a success?
I always knew the audience was there. I always knew that there were good people with good hearts who wanted to explore difficult issues through a different lens. They didn't want to see it always through the eye of a cynical Hollywood television writer who maybe was doing his fifth or sixth or seventh television series and had pretty much lost hope in not only the process, but in life itself. I have seen those people and I know those people and they are just cranking it out. I just knew that there were people who wanted to see themselves reflected as they were-which was hopeful people of faith who wanted to explore new answers to old familiar questions.

What have you been doing since the show ended last year?
We adopted two little girls from China. They are just the joy of our lives..We ended up adopting our second baby, literally a month after the show was over. We went to China, right in the middle of the SARS epidemic. We just decided to take a year off and take it easy..

We are taking a lot of meetings. We are sorting through it. To be honest, we are praying about it all the time. God knows what we are going to do next.

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News World Watch

United Methodism elects 21 new bishops

Liberals join scholarly attack on The Da Vinci Code By Richard Ostling

One desire: Aldersgate focuses on worship

Q&A weith Martha Williamson creator of "Touched by an Angel"

News
World Watch

Liberals join scholarly attack
on The Da Vinci Code
By Richard Ostling