Bishop Young Jin Cho assigned to lead
Virginia Conference for next four years
Young Jin Cho is greeted during a reception following the announcement that
he would lead the Virginia Conference. |
Bishop Young Jin Cho, Arlington District Superintendent who was elected a bishop and consecrated at the 2012 Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, was assigned to come home to Virginia to lead the Virginia Conference for the next four years.
A Service of Celebration on the assignment of Young Jin Cho as Resident Bishop of the Virginia Conference will be held at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Sept. 22, at Reveille United Methodist Church, 4200 Cary Street Road, Richmond. Reception will follow the service in the Reveille Fellowship Hall.
All bishops in the jurisdiction were given their assignments on late Thursday, July 19.
About 9:45 p.m., after spending several hours in discussions and discernment, the jurisdictional Committee on the Episcopacy called for all active bishops, including the five newly-elected bishops, to come to Harrell Hall to meet, one at a time, with the committee to learn where they would be serving for the next quadrennium (2012-2016). At about 10:30 p.m., all the assignments were announced to the jurisdictional conference delegations.
While it is uncommon for a newly-elected bishop to be returned to his or her home conference, it is allowed in paragraph 406 of The United Methodist Book of Discipline, as long as the jurisdictional Committee on the Episcopacy recommends it by a two-thirds vote and the jurisdictional conference approves by a majority vote.
The Rev. Tom Berlin, pastor of Floris UMC in Herndon and Virginia Conference clergy representative to the jurisdictional Episcopacy Committee, said many bishops he has talked with told him that it takes at least two years for a new bishop to learn about and understand a conference.
“Young Jin will be way ahead of that,” Berlin said. “He will be able to begin right away.”
Cho joked that the General Council on Finance and Administration (GCFA) “will save some moving costs.”
Members of the Virginia Conference delegation and others from Virginia attending the conference gathered in a tent erected near Stuart Auditorium beside Lake Junaluska to greet their new bishop. They sang the old hymn “Come home, come home …” and applauded wildly as Cho entered the tent.
“I promise to do my best,” Cho told the Virginians, “but I ask you to pray for me.”
Cho has called for more emphasis on prayer and spiritual disciplines in the conference.
“This is a great conference,” Cho said. “If we strengthen our spiritual foundation, it can be even greater.”
Below is a list of all episcopal assignments in the Southeastern Jurisdiction:
Alabama-West Florida Conference - Bishop Paul Leeland
Western North Carolina Conference - Bishop Larry Goodpaster
Florida Conference - Bishop Ken Carter
South Carolina Conference - Bishop Jonathan Holston
Holston Conference - Bishop Mary Virginia Taylor
Kentucky and Red Bird Missionary Conferences - Bishop Lindsey Davis
Mississippi Conference - Bishop James Swanson
Tennessee and Memphis Conferences - Bishop Bill McAlilly
North Georgia Conference - Bishop Mike Watson
North Carolina Conference - Bishop Hope Morgan Ward
Virginia Conference - Bishop Young Jin Cho
North Alabama Conference - Bishop Debbie Wallace-Padgett
South Georgia Conference - Bishop James King
- Linda Rhodes, director of Communications
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