The North Central Jurisdiction (NCJ) of The United Methodist Church includes the conferences of Wisconsin, Northern Illinois, Illinois Great River, East Ohio, West Ohio, Indiana, Michigan, Iowa, the Dakotas and Minnesota. Each of those conferences is assigned a bishop and the bishops make up the College of Bishops. The College of Bishops has called a special session of the North Central Jurisdictional Conference to meet on January 23rd. The purpose of this special session is for the NCJ delegates to consider the recommendation that Wisconsin
and Northern Illinois share a bishop and East and West Ohio share a bishop. If approved, this change would take place on September 1, 2024.
In the NCJ, the Dakotas and Minnesota already share one bishop. Pastor Jenny is on the Wisconsin Delegation to the NCJ Conference and serves on the NCJ Episcopacy Committee that assigns bishops. She is also on the Wisconsin Task Force that has been meeting with a task force from Northern Illinois to discuss the
possibilities and logistics of sharing one bishop.
Our current Wisconsin Conference bishop is Bishop Hee-Soo Jung. We know that he will be leaving Wisconsin and assigned to another area in September as he has
served 12 years in Wisconsin, which is the maximum term in one area. The NCJ Conference to elect and assign bishops meets in July.
