May 18, 2025

     Bishop Sue Haupert-Johnson announced the appointment of the Rev. Doug Forrester as Assistant to the Bishop beginning July 1, 2025 in April 2025. 

     After additional consideration, Forrester will also take on the role of Chief Operating Officer (COO) at the conference center in Glen Allen. Effective July 1, Forrester will move full-time into the roles of COO and Assistant to the Bishop as Rev. Dr. Sarah Calvert, Mountain View District Superintendent, and Rev. Jay Carey, Living Waters District Superintendent, take on district superintendent duties in the Valley Ridge District. 

    In a letter shared by Forrester, he shares more about the upcoming shift. Read more below.

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From the desk of the Valley Ridge District Superintendent:

View as a PDF

May 18, 2025

Dear friends,

Grace and peace to you in the name of our resurrected Lord Jesus Christ.

As you are aware, on April 2, Bishop Sue Haupert Johnson announced two staff changes in the Virginia Conference UMC center in Glen Allen. The Rev. Dr. Steven Summers is moving to be the new president of the Virginia United Methodist Foundation and Development Company from his position as Assistant to the Bishop and Chief Operating Officer (COO) for the Conference, and I was named as the new Assistant to the Bishop. Both appointments begin July 1.

The original plan was for me to serve as Assistant to the Bishop but not Chief Operating Officer, with the hope that this adaptation would allow me to continue to serve as the Superintendent of the Valley Ridge District in a dual role. However, after further prayer and conversation, Bishop Sue has discerned that the Assistant to the Bishop and Chief Operating Officer positions should continue to be served by the same person. I am in full agreement with her. As such, effective July 1, my appointment as your district superintendent will end and I will become the full-time Assistant to the Bishop/COO.

This was not an easy decision. Over the course of the last five years, my family and I have cultivated deep roots in the Roanoke area. Tracy teaches in the Roanoke County Public Schools, Ellen is nearing completion of her associate’s degree from Virginia Western Community College, and Claire is completing her sophomore year in high school. However, after prayerful conversation, we have realized how important for us to be living and serving God in the same place as a family, and this new appointment will allow us to do just that.

So, what does this mean for the clergy and laity of the Valley Ridge District and the congregations and communities they represent? For the next year, our district will be superintended by DS Jay Carey and DS Sarah Calvert. Rev. Carey currently services the Living Waters District and will be adding to his areas of responsibility the churches and clergy of the northern part of the Valley Ridge District. In the same way, Dr. Calvert serves the Mountain View District and will be serving the southern portion of the Valley Ridge. It just so happens that the three of us have been working together on ways to collaborate as the superintendents of the three districts in south-central and southwestern portions of the Conference. This new arrangement is a serendipitous outgrowth of that work already begun, and you could not ask for anyone on earth better equipped to guide you through the next year than these two trusted colleagues and saints of God.

There is so much gratitude that I must express for my time as a district superintendent, gratitude that deserves its own separate communication to come later. Suffice it to say that I love you all. I love the communities of southwest Virginia, their clergy, and their laity. I love our district leadership, and the best district staff and lay leader that Virginia has ever known. I will never stop missing you and I will never be prouder of the work we have done together since 2020.

I will also tell you that I know from experience how important the work of the offices of the bishop and conference staff is, and I am honored to be chosen to support Bishop Sue and the conference staff in their work. I am humbled by the faith placed in me and I look forward to all that is to come in this shared life we call ministry.

I will conclude this letter by quoting my father Walter Mitchell Forrester who, during times of change and uncertainty would gather my brother and me, look us in the eyes and say, “As long as we have each other, we are going to be OK.”

Thanks be to God for this beautiful United Methodist connection that binds us together with cords that cannot be broken. Thanks be to God for this connection that insures we will always “have each other,” and thanks be to God for the Valley Ridge District.

In Christ’s deep and abiding love,

Doug

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