Sudarshana Devadhar elected a bishop of the United Methodist Church

Congrats to Suda Devadhar, a D.S. from my NCNY annual conference, who was elected bishop last week. Suda is a good man, has a great passion for youth work, and will be accompanying our jurisdictional youth on their mission trip to India this December. Good stuff!


Sudarshana Devadhar elected a bishop of the United Methodist Church:

The Rev. Sudarshana Devadhar
July 14, 2004

SYRACUSE, N.Y. (UMNS) -- The Rev. Sudarshana Devadhar of the North Central New York Annual Conference has been elected a bishop by the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference of the United Methodist Church.

Devadhar, the superintendent of the Ontario District, was elected Wednesday, July 14. He will fill one of the vacancies created in the denomination�s Northeastern Jurisdictional College of Bishops by the retirements of six bishops. The new bishops are being elected by 288 delegates attending the July 12-17 conference.
Devadhar, a native of India, will be one of 50 active U. S. bishops leading the United Methodist Church and serving one of the episcopal areas of the 13 annual conferences that make up the 12-state jurisdiction. The Northeastern Jurisdiction is home to 1.5 million United Methodists in Connecticut, Delaware, Maine, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey, New York, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont and West Virginia. It also includes the District of Columbia.

A consecration service for the new bishops will be held at 11:15 a.m. July 16, at Syracuse (N.Y.) University.
An episcopal assignment committee is already considering where Devadhar and other active bishops will serve for the next four years. Their assignments will be effective Sept. 1.
Endorsed by the North Central New York Conference, the Western New York Annual Conference and the National Federation of Asian American United Methodists, Devadhar was elected on the second ballot, receiving 169 votes of the 287 votes cast. The number of votes needed to elect was 165.

While the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference is electing six bishops, four other United Methodist jurisdictional conferences are meeting to elect 15 others.