North Central Jurisdictional (NCJ) Conference delegates on Friday agreed to add $80,000 to the $40,000 currently allocated in the 2025-2029 jurisdictional budget, specifically for the Episcopal Area Transition Fund. The purpose of this fund is to resource bishops and episcopal areas related to the reduction of bishops that was approved at the 2024 General Conference.
In January, the NCJ established two new episcopal areas: one comprising the Wisconsin and Northern Illinois annual conferences and another comprising the West Ohio and East Ohio annual conferences. This reduced the number of bishops serving NCJ’s 10 conferences to seven, relieving pressure on the denomination’s stressed Episcopal Fund.
Your support of the Episcopal Fund apportionment helps pay the salaries and benefits of United Methodist Bishops and allows them to travel across their episcopal areas providing mentorship and leadership.
Then in May, General Conference called the NCJ to eliminate an additional bishop assignment, thus reducing the jurisdiction’s bishop count to six. With Bishop Gregory Vaughn Palmer (West Ohio) and Bishop Julius Trimble (Indiana) retiring this year, and Bishop Frank Beard (Illinois Great Rivers) going on long-term disability due to his ongoing battle with glaucoma, this means that no new NCJ bishop elections are needed this year. But it does mean that two existing episcopal areas will need to be served by one bishop going forward. The NCJ Committee on Episcopacy is determining which bishop and areas will be impacted, and that is expected to be revealed Saturday, when bishop assignments for the next quadrennium are announced.
Some believe the Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area—having been formed in 2012, with the Dakotas and Minnesota Conferences sharing one bishop ever since—is poised to be a leader in helping other conferences figure out how to share a bishop.
“The Dakotas-Minnesota Episcopal Area has been leading our jurisdiction in how to have a bishop who splits their time between multiple conferences and the general church,” said Minnesota lay delegate Becky Boland. “As a result, I encourage us to intentionally share the lessons and tools we have developed to assist others as they enter this transition—and for us to intentionally learn from others in this time as they adapt.”
Episcopacy Committee member Andy Call (East Ohio), presenting the motion to NCJ delegates along with Rev. Dr. Barrie Tritle (Iowa), speculated that a new episcopal area might require the addition of up to two full-time staff for the episcopal office. Annual conferences likely would assume those costs after a couple of years, Call said. However, annual conferences have already approved their 2025 budgets and are not likely to have planned for sharing a bishop.
Delegates will vote on the jurisdictional budget on Saturday.
story by Victoria Rebeck, Northern Illinois Annual Conference director of communications
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