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Cal-Nevada AC  

Ben Silva-Netto's Anguishing Run for Bishop

A personal perspective by Bruce Pettit, California-Nevada lay jurisdictional delegate (page 5)

Ben Silva-Netto was, in my opinion, the victim of a whisper campaign that he lacked good administrative skills. I have no direct experience regarding the accuracy of that contention. But it was repeated often and almost never substantiated. One of his former students at Pacific School of Religion told me Silva-Netto often came to class disorganized, but another student told me she had learned a lot from his classes.  

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Press Reports (click on links for full story) 

Bishop Thomas Bickerton

NEW Methodist bishop envisions church growth
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review - Pittsburgh,PA,USA
... "He is a wonderful, graceful man.". Bickerton, the United Methodist Church's youngest bishop, was elected to the post in July by lay and clergy delegates. ...

Bickerton, the United Methodist Church's youngest bishop, was elected to the post in July by lay and clergy delegates. He will work from the Western Pennsylvania's Conference's headquarters along Freedom Road in Cranberry. He succeeds the Rev. Hae-Jong Kim, who retired this month after four years as conference bishop.

Bishop Minerva Carcano 

NEW bishop is Hispanic woman

East Valley Tribune - Mesa,AZ,USA

... bishop for the Desert Southwest Annual Conference, a region ... more than 45,000 members make up the conference. ... School of Theology at Southern Methodist University ...

The Rev. Minerva Carcaño, 50, a native of Edinburg, Texas, was elected on the 25th ballot in the wee hours of Saturday morning by 88 delegates to the Western Jurisdiction Conference meeting in San Jose, Calif. She came from behind to win the necessary 59 ballots for election. She and another candidate were deadlocked for more than a dozen ballots before other candidates began dropping out, allowing for a winner to emerge. In the end, she received 83 of the 88 votes.

Bishop Michael J. Coyner 

United Methodist bishop to visit Fort Wayne
Fort Wayne Journal Gazette - Fort Wayne,IN,USA
Bishop Michael J. Coyner, bishop of the United Methodist Church in Indiana, will be honored along with his wife, Marsha, during a reception from 2 to 3 pm ... 

New United Methodist Bishop to lead worship
Decatur Daily Democrat - Decatur,IN,USA
Bishop Coyner was appointed as Indiana's sixth United Methodist bishop by the denomination's Northwestern Jurisdictional Conference in Davenport, Iowa this ... 

UNITED Methodist bishop looks ahead
South Bend Tribune - South Bend,IN,USA
... Michael J. Coyner began his tenure as Indiana's sixth United Methodist bishop on Wednesday with a flock that's divided regionally and theologically. . 

DIVISIONS await new United Methodist bishop

Indianapolis Star - Indianapolis,IN,USA

The Rev. Michael J. Coyner began his tenure as Indiana's sixth United Methodist bishop today with a flock that's divided regionally and theologically. 

The Rev. Michael J. Coyner began his tenure as Indiana's sixth United Methodist bishop today with a flock that's divided regionally and theologically. 

The Anderson native returns to Indiana from an eight-year assignment in the Dakotas, where he merged its two regional conferences into one. Like all of the denomination's leaders, he also must try to heal divisions over homosexuality. 

Coyner guides not only the largest Protestant denomination in Indiana but also one of the state's bedrock institutions. It sponsors two of the state's leading hospitals, in Indianapolis and Lake County, as well as three universities, children's homes and retirement centers.

The denomination has debated homosexuality since 1972, and a March church trial that acquitted a lesbian pastor in Washington state redrew battle lines just in time for the denomination's global general conference in May in Pittsburgh. However, deliberations were "gracious," as opposed to abrasive debate four years earlier in Cleveland, Coyner said. 

"That gives me some hope that we're moving ahead. Our stance continues to be that we welcome all persons, we see them all as children as God," he said in an interview today. 

Pittsburgh delegates affirmed that gay sex is "incompatible with Christian teaching," banned ordination of homosexuals, and made performing same-sex marriage ceremonies a chargeable offense for clergy. They also rejected a proposal from a leader of the evangelical, Indianapolis-based Confessing Movement to split the denomination in two. 

"I don't see any split coming," Coyner said. "I don't see that on the horizon. I think talking about splitting is unhealthy." 

The 54-year-old bishop described himself as theological moderate, one who plies the middle of the road, where he sees potential to salve the tension between liberal and conservative factions within United Methodism. 

"It's definitely there," he said of the tension. "My hope would be that we make that a creative tension."

<snip>

Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar 

METHODISTS get new bishop in surprise change

Newark Star Ledger - Newark,NJ,USA

... the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. NY, at a meeting of the Methodists' Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference, which covers ... 

Bishop Sudarshana Devadhar began working last week in Ocean Township at the headquarters of the Greater New Jersey Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church. He had worked in upstate New York since the mid-1980s.  

Devadhar, 53, was elected bishop six weeks ago in Syracuse, N.Y., at a meeting of the Methodists' Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference, which covers 13 states from Maine to West Virginia.  

He replaces Bishop Alfred Johnson who surprised Methodists by announcing in an open letter July 26 that he would seek early retirement due to "lingering stress from marital discord which finally culminated in a divorce in January" and because of a complaint recently made against him to the Methodists' College of Bishops.  

In his letter, Johnson did not elaborate on the complaint. However, a person familiar with the complaint, who asked not to be identified, said it was filed by Johnson's former wife after their divorce.

Bishop Sally Dyck 

BISHOP answers Her 'call'

Pioneer Press (subscription) - St. Paul,MN,USA ... This week, Dyck becomes bishop of Minnesota for the United Methodist Church — the fourth-largest denomination in the state, behind Roman Catholics and two ... 

Q. When we talk about "hot-button'' issues — issues of sexuality, issues that really stir the public debate — people say these really are issues of interpreting the Bible. What do United Methodists make of the Bible?

A. Scripture is primary for us, yet we all interpret Scripture. Again, I think that's the beauty of United Methodism in that we come to it with different experience, tradition and perhaps even reason in the broadest sense of that word.

So you can appreciate how when the Scripture was originally translated into the vernacular, they wanted to burn the guy's bones because what if everybody could read the Scripture and interpret it for themselves?

You can name any number of "hot buttons'' throughout history where people have struggled around, "What does it mean, therefore how do we proceed forward?" Those are always tidal waves of social change. That's why it's essential everybody's voice is a part of it. And it's messy. And there are people whose lives and faith are at stake, and you need to be very careful in helping people share their understandings with each other. They all have to be at the table.

Q. Can a church such as the United Methodists, which has a representative, democratic type of governance, come to rest on some of these divisive issues, such as homosexuality?

A. Well, you can think of some other massive changes. Women were a pretty big change. We continue to struggle with that issue at certain levels as well. But we're pretty clear what the United Methodist stand is. That's taken time, as has our own understanding of racial diversity and equality. So it's not perfect in resolution decades down the line, but somehow some resolution — and I don't know what it is — will also happen around the "big H."

Q. I saw a bumper sticker outside a church once that said, "If you won't ordain us, don't baptize us." Is that sound or specious theology?

A. It's a sound byte that probably doesn't fully unpack the widest issue of the underlying problems. You can appreciate the sticker's message, in terms of everyone being allowed to grow into the person and fulfill the calling to which they have been called. And yet we know all kinds of different folks don't automatically become ordained. We all have a calling. There have been people called over time for a variety of reasons who have not been allowed to fulfill that calling. Is there anything there we can learn? 

Bishop Robert E. Hayes Jr. 

NEW Bishop Grew Up In Racially Divided Church KOTV

Tulsa,OK,USA Thirty-six hours into his four-year term as bishop of the Oklahoma United Methodist Conference, Robert E. Hayes Jr. sat in his Oklahoma ... 

Hayes, who is the state's first Methodist black bishop, said he does not want to be ``the African American bishop of Oklahoma.''

``I just want to be the bishop of Oklahoma.''

He said he will use the first months in his new position to look ``at this great conference,'' listen to its people, and learn.

``After that, I hope to sit down and cast a vision of how we can grow the Kingdom of God,'' he said.

``I feel a mandate to make disciples of Jesus Christ.''

Hayes said he often is asked where he goes for his personal spiritual nourishment.

``What I get out of ministry is the joy and satisfaction of helping people, and in helping people, I get ministered to.'' he said.

``When I see a life changed, or someone who was heading down lifted up . . . that's what feeds me.

``That's where I get my energy and my enthusiasm. It's the giving of yourself. That's what ministry is all about.''

As bishop of Oklahoma, Hayes will serve nearly 500 churches in the Oklahoma Conference and 89 churches in the Oklahoma Indian Missionary Conference.

He replaces Bishop Bruce Blake, 66, who is retiring.

Bishop John L. Hopkins 

Bishop says UM Church alive, well'
Canton Repository (subscription) - Canton,OH,USA

As the new bishop of the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, Hopkins said Christians must embrace “social holiness.”

The church, he cautioned, must be on guard against extremism, demagoguery and “Balkanization,” saying that some Christians are reducing social issues to sound bites and political issues, rather than “doing the hard work of getting to know people.”

<snip>

Though Hopkins describes the United Methodist Church as “vibrant,” it is not without controversy. On Dec. 2, a minister in Philadelphia was defrocked after it was learned that she was in a same-sex relationship, a violation of church policy.

“There’s been a lot of pain around this issue,” Hopkins said. “People have been hurt because they’re gay. ... It’s hard to know why it’s (issue) occupied so much time. Rightly or wrongly, people who would want to change church policy, try to make comparisons to blacks and women.

“Once you make that comparison, it becomes a huge issue. I personally don’t believe gay marriage undermines (traditional) marriage or our culture. However, I believe in the biblical definition of marriage, between a man and a woman.”

`A man of great spiritual warmth'

Akron Beacon Journal (subscription) - Akron,OH,USA ... On Sept. 1, Hopkins will come to North Canton to serve an eight-year term as the bishop of the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church. ...

``I am really concerned with how the local church represents Christ in the community. It's not just about Sunday morning. It's about what happens every day during the week,'' Hopkins said. ``We can't just be a religious club of our own. We need to be concerned about how we can welcome the newcomer, those in need, the person in our midst. It's crucial.''

Bishop Janice Riggle Huie (HYOO'-wee) 

Huie becomes state's first female United Methodist bishop
KLTV - Tyler,TX,USA
The former United Methodist bishop of Arkansas is making a series of pastoral visits to churches around the Texas Conference -- which covers East Texas from ...

Bishop Scott Jones 

UNITED Methodists to install new bishop
Kansas.com - KS,USA
... Scott Jones will be installed as the new bishop of the state's United Methodists. ... ministry life, including Arthur, who plans to be a United Methodist minister. ...

They realize how crucial his job will be in leading the second-largest faith group in Kansas with more than 206,000 members, according to the Glenmary Research Center.

Roman Catholics are the largest in the state, with nearly 406,000 members.

Bishop Hee-Soo Jung (click for additional updates) 

Wisconsin clergyman will become the first Korean leader of the United Methodist congregations of northern Illinois

Chicago Tribune

Now Korean Methodists who immigrated to the United States say they hope to repay a lifelong debt by reinvigorating the American church with the same fervor its missionaries gave them years ago.

They have found one symbol of that hope in Rev. Hee-Soo Jung, of Appleton, Wis., who on Wednesday begins his term as the first Korean bishop to lead 125,000 United Methodists in northern Illinois. Many Koreans in the church believe Jung's election will help unify liberals and conservatives and revive a missionary spirit that will unite all ethnicities.

"I always believed in the passionate spirituality of the Korean community and at the same time its passion for mission and outreach," Jung said Tuesday. "At the same time, as a young church on American soil it has a lot of potential to strengthen for the future. Our main denomination is kind of aging, but young immigrant churches are fresh in many ways."

Of the 400 churches represented by the Northern Illinois Conference, more than 20 are Korean congregations that share the traditions and piety that appealed to Jung as a convert in South Korea. Jung, 49, was baptized into the Korean Methodist Church when he was 16.

<snip>

"As time goes by, it's clear to us the most important thing is to spread the good news in whatever language is most convenient," said Kang Yong Yang, an elder at the Flossmoor church.

In 2000, the U.S. church launched the Korean American National Plan, a strategy to reach out to new immigrants as well as sustain subsequent generations and develop leaders. Jung serves on the council in charge of implementing the plan.

Jung said the "silent exodus" of young people is not an issue exclusive to the Korean church but touches the entire United Methodist denomination. It can be solved, he said, by empowering them. 

Bishop Deborah Kiesey 

Methodists install new bishop
Aberdeen American News - Aberdeen,SD,USA

In her remarks, Kiesey said she wants to build a church that "hungers for peace and searches for justice."

The church should be a place "where everyone's accepted and challenged to find sanctuary from a world that can be cruel and unfair."

KIESEY to lead United Methodist congregations

Aberdeen American News - Aberdeen,SD,USA

... The bishop acts as a superintendent for United Methodist congregations in the Dakotas. Duties include appointing clergy and upholding rules of the church.

SIOUX FALLS, S.D. - United Methodist churches in South Dakota will be under the supervision of a woman for the first time with the appointment of Deborah Lieder Kiesey as bishop.

Kiesey, 53, was elected at a conference Saturday morning in Davenport, Iowa, to lead the 43,000 members of the United Methodist congregations in the Dakotas.

Bishop Begins Historic Role Kiesey Visits Yankton As First Female ...
Yankton Daily Press - Yankton,SD,USA
... The moment showed Kiesey's connection to the clergy and laity who gathered at Yankton United Methodist Church to meet their new bishop. ...

Methodist bishop talks about her role
Aberdeen American News - Aberdeen,SD,USA
... The moment showed Kiesey's connection to the clergy and laity who gathered at Yankton United Methodist Church to meet their new bishop. ..

Kiesey will find challenges in helping shrinking rural parishes, Trapp said. "How will you keep the doors open? How do you look at ways to do your ministry?" he asked.

The church will redefine how it meets local needs, Kiesey said. "The church of today is not the church of the 1950s," she said.

FIRST Dakotas woman Methodist bishop seeks common ground Grand Forks Herald

Grand Forks,ND,USA Deborah Kiesey says she is a "bridge builder" in dealing with people, and she plans to use those skills as the new Methodist bishop for the Dakotas.

Kiesey said she recognizes the conference's challenges, including the great distances between churches, which can make parishes feel isolated.

The United Methodist Church, with 8.3 million members nationwide, also is struggling with theological differences on such issues as homosexuality, she said.

Kiesey understands the church's system, respects it, and has a great love for the church, said Sheila Richards, of Sioux Falls, S.D., one of four conference superintendents who oversee the conference's five districts.

Bishop Marcus Matthews

NEW Bishop Installed in Philly
WPVI - Philadelphia,PA,USA

The 58-year-old bishop, a South Carolina native, said he believes his congregations, particularly in urban areas, need to reach out to the new communities forming around them.

He said they "need to be sensitive to other cultures, and even begin to learn new languages such as Spanish and Korean."

Matthews said he is praying for the Reverend Beth Stroud, an associate pastor at First United Methodist Church of Germantown, who faces a church trial after publicly declaring last year that she lives in a committed lesbian relationship.

Bishop Gregory V. Palmer 

Bishop Gregory Palmer to help St. Paul's UMC celebrate its ...
Waukon Standard - Waukon,IA,USA
Bishop Gregory V. Palmer of the Iowa Area of the United Methodist Church will be the featured preacher at a special worship service celebrating the 150th ...

Religion-politics mix grows more volatile
DesMoinesRegister.com - Des Moines,IA,United States
... Bishop Gregory Palmer, who presides over the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, said church members "who have substantial reasons to ... 

Bishop Gregory Palmer, who presides over the Iowa Annual Conference of the United Methodist Church, said church members "who have substantial reasons to believe fellow United Methodists are in violation of our beliefs and covenant have the right in our polity to seek the redress of those concerns. My prayer is that a just resolution can be reached between complainant and respondent if such action goes forward." 

Bishop Jeremiah Park 

Methodist pastor embarks on mission to raise opposition to war
Boston Globe - Boston,MA,USA
... has the blessing of both his own local church leaders and Bishop Jeremiah Park ... The award, named for the famous Methodist evangelist who died in 1976, recognizes ... 

Bishop James Swanson 

LUNCH honors Swanson
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer - Columbus,GA,USA

My dream is to see the United Methodist Church turn this declining membership around," Swanson said in a statement from North Carolina. United Methodism, like many mainline Protestant denominations, has been losing ground in membership in the past few decades.

"I really feel we have a message that the world needs to hear. We believe in personal salvation. We are so committed to social justice.

"The church has a mission to make a difference in the world," he said, adding, "I want to see the church having fun doing that -- that's my dream."

Former St. Mary's pastor returns as bishop
Columbus Ledger-Enquirer - Columbus,GA,USA
... James Swanson, pastor of St. Mary's Road United Methodist Church from 1988-2001, was elected a bishop in his denomination this past summer, and St. ...

Bishop Mary Ann Swenson

Alternate link:  http://www.ucmpage.org/news/bicycle_bishop.html

BISHOP Committed to Her 400 Churches and Her Bike
Los Angeles Times (subscription) - Los Angeles,CA,USA
... Swenson, 57, who in her capacity as bishop of the California-Pacific Conference oversees 400 United Methodist churches in Southern California, Hawaii, Guam and ...

BICYCLING bishop pedals to connect the Church to people, reverse ...
ChurchCentral.com - USA
LA Times.com: Bishop Mary Ann Swenson attributes the decline in United Methodist Church membership to a material wealth that makes people think they have no

Bishop Mary Virginia “Dindy” Taylor

METHODISTS welcome female bishop
The State - Columbia,SC,USA
... formally welcome the Rev. Mary Virginia Dindy Taylor, the first female bishop to serve the state's United Methodist Conference. ...

Taylor offered her first official sermon to the congregation, dealing with a theme that emerged in the service’s featured gospel reading, Luke 4:16-21, which recounts the story of Jesus preaching for the first time in public to those in the temple at Nazareth.

The first word in Jesus’ sermon is “today,” and Taylor used it as both a comment on her first appearance in South Carolina and on the need for Christians to remember that God is present in their daily lives.

“Too often we’re caught in yesterday — stuck in a place that was long since come and gone and wasn’t all that great anyway,” Taylor said. “We must acknowledge that God’s spirit is upon us today. Without that, we are just going around in a circle. God’s awesome spirit is the power in the church.”

WOMAN TO LEAD UNITED METHODISTS
Myrtle Beach Sun News - Myrtle Beach,SC,USA
... Taylor is one of five women to be elected bishop of United Methodist conferences nationwide this year, two of them in the Southeast.

Women clergy are not new in South Carolina, but a woman as leader of a large denomination is a new development. It should make it easier for other women to follow Taylor's footsteps, said Carl Evans, head of the religion department at the University of South Carolina.

"The time is certainly upon us - and past due - for a woman to be chief executive of a denomination in this state," he said. "This will be a great encouragement to women leaders in other denominations, and will show the way forward for others to become bishops."

Taylor is one of five women to be elected bishop of United Methodist conferences nationwide this year, two of them in the Southeast.

"The election of women causes us to reconsider our old interpretation of Scripture, and the cultural biases that we've allowed to affect our work as Christians," said Garlinda Burton, general secretary for the Illinois-based United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women. "I think it's a God thing. ... God is doing a new thing, and we can either hang on and go with God or get out of the way."

RELIGION AT A GLANCE
Skagit Valley Herald - Mount Vernon,WA,United States

“The time is certainly upon us — and past due — for a woman to be chief executive of a denomination in this state,'' said Carl Evans, head of the religion department at the University of South Carolina.

Taylor is one of five women to be elected bishop of United Methodist conferences nationwide this year, two of them in the Southeast.

‘‘The election of women causes us to reconsider our old interpretation of Scripture and the cultural biases that we've allowed to affect our work as Christians,'' said Garlinda Burton, general secretary for the Illinois-based United Methodist Commission on the Status and Role of Women.

Bishop Hope Morgan Ward 

Passion runs deep for new Miss. bishop
SunHerald.com - Biloxi,MS,USA

"The great challenge around these sorts of issues, whether homosexuality, or the war in Iraq or abortion or children in poverty, is the willingness for us to honor one another, to stay at the table with one another and to continue to be in dialog with one another," Ward said. "We are a family, and like any family we have differing opinions.

"One of the strengths of the United Methodist Church is that we are of one heart: 'If your heart is as my heart, give me your hand,' and not, 'If your opinion is as my opinion, give me your hand.'

"The issues are not disappearing from the scene in our culture, and we will continue to engage them. Bishops are charged with the responsibility of maintaining the unity of the church, and that is more than the unanimity of opinion."

BISHOP Ward Visits Meridian
WTOK - Meridian,MS,USA
... church," she said. Bishop Ward is one of only two women appointed by the National Conference of the United Methodist Church this year.

 Bishop Peter D. Weaver 

Methodist bishop keeping the faith
Boston Globe - Boston,MA,USA 

According to the Gallup poll, George W. Bush and US Senator Hillary Rodham Clinton were the most admired man and woman in America last year. Both Methodists, they talk about how their religious faith molds their lives and politics. 

Peter D. Weaver, the new bishop for the Lawrence-headquartered New England Conference of the United Methodist Church, proudly cites Gallup's findings to honor the president and former first lady for their testimony of faith. That faith, he says, can put people ''in touch with the presence of God through Jesus Christ, which in my own personal experience is transforming." 

Indeed, at a time when his and other mainline denominations are losing members and wrestling with tight finances, Weaver is banking on PDFs -- public displays of faith, through vibrant congregations and their service to communities -- to help him open more churches. 

That would reverse recent trends. Weaver's conference, composed of the New England states except Vermont and parts of Connecticut, has 101,000 members, 49,000 of them in Massachusetts. That's down roughly 10 percent from a decade ago. 

But Weaver, 59, who has been on the job since Sept. 1, believes that if the church excites its members and its community by living its faith, the problem of declining membership, and the attendant financial squeeze, will right itself. His former assignment as bishop, the Philadelphia-area conference, added 30 new congregations in recent years, he said in an interview this week. 

He also cited two Pittsburgh-area churches he served -- one poor, one affluent -- where membership and budgets grew after the congregations joined together for prayer and fellowship. 

''All the polls say there's tremendous spiritual hunger in this society," said Weaver, who is also president of the Methodist church's Council of Bishops, with members from the United States, Africa, Europe, and Asia. <snip> 

Rev. William Willimon

New Methodist bishop checks flock in Decatur
The Decatur Daily - Decatur,AL,United States
By Melanie Smith. The new United Methodist bishop for North Alabama had a simple message based on one of Jesus' stories for his Decatur listeners Sunday. ... 

Willimon said that some who wrote about him in "Peculiar Prophet" do not understand his irrational affection for the church. But it is God's new nation, he said.

"It's a mess, it's full of a bunch of sinners, and we're not half faithful to what we claim," he said.

Still, the church is where people go to hear and to tell the truth and to confess their failure in a world where there is a lot of deceit, Willimon said. It's not a place to be comfortable, he said.

New bishop of North Alabama conference targets new members
WHNT - Huntsville,AL,USA
The Reverend William Willimon, the new bishop of the United Methodist church for north Alabama, says a declining, aging membership is a problem that he hopes ... 

DECATUR, Ala. The Reverend William Willimon, the new bishop of the United Methodist church for north Alabama, says a declining, aging membership is a problem that he hopes to reverse -- as well the state's lack of effort to relieve poverty …Willimon said the United Methodist member's average age is 58, about 12 years old than the average American.

WILLIMON settles in to lead Methodists

AL.com - Birmingham,AL,USA

New United Methodist Bishop William Willimon has often needled his denomination for being boring and irrelevant and having a bulky bureaucracy. ... 

"I think we mainline liberal Protestant types have done a huge disservice in de-supernaturalizing the faith," Willimon said. "I think it's about miracles. It's about the supernatural."

Willimon said he will take two months of orientation to get to know the churches in his jurisdiction. So far, he likes what he sees. "North Alabama has really impressed me," he said.

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Directory of NIC VOICE Jurisdictional Conference 2004 News Updates posted online at www.nicvoice.org:

See also:  Bishop Jung Updates - 12-30-04

• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 18 (Press Reports on UMC Bishop Assignments, Article for Cal-Nev AC)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 17 (Interpreter OnLine:  Meet the bishops, Newscope Online articles,  Press Reports)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 16 (Commentary on Bishop Jung by Wayne Mayfield, Letters to the Editor – UMR, Bishop Willimon article from Christian Century)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 15 (UMNS Reports, Press Reports, Reports from NIC on Bishop Jung, UMR Reports, PNW RMN Reports, CorNet posting from RMN Digest)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 14 (UMNS Reports, Press Reports including Agape Press articles, Newscope, Commentary by Rev. James Gibson, links to reports)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 13 (UMNS Reports on Elections and Assignments, Press Reports, additional links on new bishops)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 12 (North Central Jurisdiction Episcopal Assignments)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 11 (Press Reports, UMR Reports, Elected Bishops and additional links to information where available)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 10 (Press Reports, Elected Bishops and additional links to information where available)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 9 (Elected Bishops and additional links to information where available)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 8 (Elected Bishops)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 7 (Press Reports, UMNS Reports, NIC Reports and Elected Bishops)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 6 (Episcopal Nominee - Mark Horst Additional Information)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 5 (Websites for Episcopal Election Coverage, Northeastern Jurisdiction nominees, UMNS Report - Bishop Johnson Requests Retirement)
•  NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 4 (Updated UMNS JC information, Press articles, South Central Jurisdiction nominees and process for episcopal selection)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 3 (UMNS Candidate Biographies, Press articles, , Southeastern Jurisdiction nominees including audio/video statements)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 2 (UMNS JC information, Press articles, Reporter Interactive article, Western Jurisdiction nominees and Examination questions from Episcopal Order of Ministry)
• NIC VOICE - JC2004 Updates 1 (UMNS JC information, Press articles, North Central Jurisdiction nominees)