For more than 200 years, ever since John Wesley appointed Thomas Coke bishop of America, Methodists have been consecrating bishops, setting them aside for the particular work of oversight. A year and a half ago, in the summer of 2012, I joined those ranks, when the United Methodist Church, through its Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference, asked me to serve as a bishop.
The promises that I made to those who attended the consecration service were clear. I pledged “to guard the faith, to seek the unity and to exercise the discipline of the whole church.” But what wasn’t so clear, then or now, is what this calling means in our particular moment in history.
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