Case of the Rotating Bishops...

I am a member of the SC Annual Conference and while we have not experienced what you all are going through, we have had a Bishop pass during his tenure and were served by one interim Bishop. Recently (our previous Bishop) went back to her home Annual Conference before her time was up but that has not really cause any issue either she moved at an appropriate time with appropriate notice and we now have Bishop Holston who is amazing. You all will be in my prayers.

I'm sure the loss of a Bishop like this has to be very sad and disconcerting.

I can't imagine the changes in Bishops would effect Charge Conferences or District Conferences which are usually led by your District Superintendent.

Most like a new Bishop will take a lot of advise from her/his cabinet during the appointment process. But, as always, the Bishop has the final choice.

Of course any time there is a change in episcopal leadership it will mean a change in style of leadership and possibly in leadership priorities. My Bishop is two years into his second four year term with us. After eight years often Bishops move. So there is always the possibility even in the normal course of things that in a couple of years some things will be up in the air. After all those of us who are clergy are itinerant and that means the Bishops too.

Bishops have passed away in office before, and an interim is the way we provide for that. What is unusual in your case is the use of multiple interims. I don't know what the reasons for this might be, but they are many: lack of availability of a bishop to serve as interim at the time, the first interim was him/herself unable to fulfill the unexpired term for some reason. I believe these decisions are made by the jurisdictional committee on the episcopacy. It may be that they had originally hoped that Bishop McLee would return to health and service, so the first bishop was chosen with the expectation that it would be temporary. When it proved otherwise, the first bishop did not feel that he could continue till the end of the term, so another was needed and the one they wanted was not available at this time, thus yet another bishop was needed to serve as a stop-gap measure until the intended bishop was available.

Now, all of that is speculation. You would have to ask someone on your jurisdiction's committee to know for sure. But, it certainly understandable to for you to feel a little lost because of it all.

My case was more 'local'. My District Superintendant was in a very serious, horrific head-on car accident. In fact, a surgeon had a 'gut feeling' (A God feeling?) and decided to cut her open right away without any diagnostic work first, where he found a partially severed aeorta and by the amount of blood lost; he estimated she would've died within a few minutes had the repair not been made (As she had already been bleeding severely internally; and her blood pressure was well below the danger zone). We had an interim come in. What's unique about my case, is that the church I currently serve is where that interim came from. An interim was sent there, and then I was sent here in the following appointment season (July) to take over. So not only did my district see an immediate, drastic change; I came in after a church had seen an immediate, drastic change. (From no plans to have a new Pastor appointed to suddenly "This is my last Sunday here, we'll find a temporary replacement shortly") Now, after just 6 months since this appointment (A year since getting a new DS by way of car accident; the old DS survived but only after nearly a year of surgeries, nursing home stays, etc., she is now retired and still doesn't walk well) I find out I am getting ANOTHER New DS. Some re-districting has left my appointment in a different district effective July 1, 2015.

It's interesting, for sure. And there's some confusion and pain (I'm definitely going to miss this DS. And I feel like I haven't been able to transition from one DS to another. Both sort of quickly disappeared due to unusual circumstances; though at least I get a few more months with this one); but it's all "doable".