She has served as a local church pastor, district superintendent and campus minister. Most recently, Stoneking taught United Methodist students at Pacific School of Religion the denomination’s history, polity and doctrine. From 2013-2107, she was the national executive director of the Fellowship of Reconciliation, the oldest interfaith peace and justice organization in the United States.
Now as bishop, Stoneking said her first priority is to help the church restructure the worldwide denomination to give each region greater equity in tailoring church life to its own customs and traditions, a plan known as regionalization.
Regionalization would allow equal standing to its worldwide regions, including Africa, Europe, the Philippines and the United States to set their own rules on various issues, including LGBTQ+ rights.
Each conference or region must ratify the new regionalization plan in the coming year for it to formally pass. Many in the church believe regionalization is the last and best option to avoid further schisms on matters of same-sex marriage and ordination of LGBTQ+ people.
“There is a tremendous spirit of openness and possibility in the United Methodist Church right now,” Stoneking said. “I am very excited about that.”
This article originally appeared here.
