April
14, 2014
Pastorgraphs: “Bishop’s Visit”
I am pleased to let you know that
our District Superintendent John Farley and Bishop Minerva Carcaño
of the California-Pacific Annual Conference are planning to meet this Wednesday
with the leaders of our Cooperative Parish. Bishop Carcaño wants to see
first-hand what we are doing at Christ Ministry Center. She also wants to get
to better know the ministers of the four parish congregations and our plans for
cooperative ministry.
I have been
informed that if the Bishop and Cabinet approve the plan for formally creating
the parish, we may soon have a Constituting Conference. I will be appointed as
“elder-in-charge: retired” and provide mentorship and general oversight to my
friends and colleagues: The Rev. Dr. Donald Owens (Exodus Church), and laity
ministers David Stump (Christ Chapel), Jonathan Reyes (Unidos en Cristo) and
Jean Elise Durandisse (Haitian Methodist).
We are
honored to have Bishop Carcaño visit us. It is a rare occasion when the Bishop
makes such a visit. She has over 400 churches scattered from the Mexico and
Arizona borders to Simi Valley to Hawaii and American Samoa under her care.
A native of
Edinburg, TX, and third generation Methodist, Bishop Carcaño spent her early
years aspiring to make a difference in the lives of persons who faced poverty
and discrimination. Her ministry has always involved work with the poor,
farm workers, immigrants, and refugees.
In 1986 she
became the first Hispanic woman to be appointed a United Methodist district
superintendent, serving in that capacity in West Texas, New Mexico,
and Portland, Oregon until 1992.
In 2004,
Bishop Minerva Carcaño became the first Hispanic woman to be elected a bishop
of The United Methodist Church, the second-largest Protestant denomination in
the U.S. She is one of 50 bishops leading more than eight million members of
The United Methodist Church. She previously served as Bishop of the Desert
Southwest Conference (Phoenix Area) before succeeding Bishop Mary Ann Swenson
of the Cal-Pac Conference (Los Angeles Area) in 2012.
Bishop
Carcaño has an almost impossible job. She has moral courage to speak out on
matters of justice. That included being arrested in an act of civil
disobedience at the gates of The White House to protest immigrant families
being torn apart by deportation. She has earned the respect of those who both
agree and disagree with her.
Please join
us in prayer for our Bishop, and that this meeting will move us closer to the
creation of Exodus United Methodist Church/Cooperative Parish.
Devotedly
yours, Bill Jenkins
From the
Quote Garden:
“The daughter of Mexican
farmworkers, Minerva was born in Edinburg, Texas. She grew up in the cotton and
tomato fields wondering if anyone cared about her. She heard a local pastor who
preached a word of justice from Isaiah say that God cared about those who
toiled on the land—that same man took action, going to the school board to find
out why all of the local Hispanic children were tracked in the lowest classes
and how to change that. Minerva decided early on that she wanted to be like
him, preaching and doing the work of justice.”
~ USC Religious
Dispatches ~
Christ United Methodist Ministry
Center
“Christ
in the Heart of San Diego”
3295
Meade Avenue - San Diego, CA 92116 - (619) 284-9205
Home of
Exodus Cooperative
Parish
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