Episcopal Church Elects First Female Bishop
MOBILE, AL -- The Christian Methodist Episcopal (C.M.E.) Church, convened for its thirty-six quadrennial session and thirty-seventh General Conference in Mobile, Alabama this month, and elected five new bishops including a female and an indigenous bishop for Africa. The theme of the General Conference was, "An Essential Church: Poised for 21st Century Ministry." Bishop James B. Walker was elected the 56th bishop of the C.M.E. Church. He is the former pastor of Phillips C.M.E. Church in Hartford, Connecticut. Bishop W.E. Lockett was elected the 57th bishop. He is the former pastor of Metropolitan C.M.E. Church in Houston, Texas, . Bishop Sylvester Williams was elected the 58th bishop. He is the former pastor of Carter Temple C.M.E. Church in Chicago, Illinois. Bishop Teresa Snorton was elected the 59th bishop and the first female bishop of the denomination. She is the Executive Director of the National Association for Clinical Pastoral Education, Inc. (ACPE) in Atlanta, Georgia, Bishop Godwin Umoette was elected the 60th bishop and the indigenous bishop for Africa. He served as a distinguished Professor of Political Science at the University of Uyo, Akwa Ibom State, Nigeria, and pastor of Bishop Marshall Gilmore Cathedral CME Church, Uyo, . The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, under the leadership of Senior Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr. and its College of Bishops, is a 139-year old historically African American Christian denomination with more than 1.2 million members across the United States, and has missions and sister churches in Haiti, Jamaica, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan/Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda Rwanda and Burundi. For additional information about the CME Church, visit www.c-m-e.org
Newly-elected C.M.E. Bishops James B.Walker, W.E. Lockett, Sylvester Williams, Teresa Snorton and Godwin T. Umoette
