Bishop Judith Craig, resident bishop of the Ohio West Area, will deliver the episcopal address this evening at 8:15 p.m.
The presentation is precedent-setting in more than one way: Bishop Craig is the first woman bishop to present the address in the 184-year history of such endeavors, and she is the first to combine multimedia musical and visual images with the spoken word, in a departure from the traditional presentations of a "state of the church" address.
"My plan was to make this address more pastoral and invitational," Bishop Craig said in a recent interview. "At first I had this little idea of a few slides and a couple of graphic charts, but it's turned into something much more."
When the Council of Bishops voted two years ago to designate Bishop Craig as the speaker, her colleagues chose someone who has been a pioneer throughout her life.
One of five children of Ray and Edna Craig, Bishop Craig is a native of Liberty, Missouri, where she received her high school diploma and graduated from William Jewell College.
While serving as a youth director for Bellefontaine Methodist Church in St. Louis, Bishop Craig studied at Eden Theological Seminary in Webster Groves, Missouri, and received an M.R.e. in 1961. After an internship in the New York City office of the National council of the Churches of Christ in the U.S.A., he became director of Christian education at First Methodist Church in Stamford, Connecticut. She worked there through 1968 while earning an M.Div. at Union Theological Seminary in New York City.
For the next two years the bishop studied at Teachers College of Union and Columbia University, specializing in the religious education of adults. During the same period, she was an instructor in adult basic education in the New York City School System for one year and an educational consultant at Epworth- Euclid United Methodist Church in Cleveland for the other.
The attraction of parish work prevailed and in 1970 she became Epworth-Euclid's director of Christian education, serving in that position until she was ordained deacon in 1972. After ordination, she was appointed associate pastor at Epworth-Euclid.
Ordained elder in 1976, she was appointed to Pleasant Hills United Methodist Church in Middleburg Heights, Ohio. In 1980 Bishop James Thomas appointed her director of the East Ohio Conference Council on Ministries. She served as director until her election as bishop in 1984 at the North Central Jurisdictional Conference in Duluth, Minnesota.
Bishop Craig's consecration set another precedent: The bishop who laid hands on Judith Craig was Marjorie Matthews, the first woman bishop in Christendom in almost 800 years. For both women, the moment was electric--the first such moment in modern times.
Bishop Craig's service in a variety of aspect of the life of the Church both before and after her consecration has given her wide experience and a broad perspective on The United Methodist Church. She served the Michigan Area as bishop for eight years and was assigned to the Ohio West Aria in 1992.
Elected to both General Conference and jurisdictional conferences in 1980 and 1984, she was a member of the General Council on Ministries from 1980 to 1984 and a bishop on the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women from 1984 to 1988.
Bishop Craig served as chairperson of The Advance for Christ and His Church from 1988 to 1992. In producing the videotape that introduced the Advance at the 1992 General Conference, she drew on her Christian education roots while having fun with a group of children and a kite on a windy day.
Currently she is a member of the General board of Publication. On her episcopal visitation in 1994, she traveled through the Middle East to Egypt, Israel, Palestine, and Cyprus, representing the Council of bishops in meetings with the Middle East Council of Churches.
Tonight's multimedia episcopal address may have been her idea- -or someone else's. "In the early consultations, the conversations sometimes went all day," she said. "Did I first offer this, or did someone else?"
Regardless of who may first have made the suggestion, Bishop Craig's conversation with a group that included UMCom General Secretary Judy Weidman ensured the idea would become reality. "She said, 'we'll do it with you,'" Bishop Craig recalled. And that is what happened.
Noting that UMCom staff member Vince Isner spent days looking through photographs, video clips, and other images, Bishop Craig added that as soon as the rough cut was ready Isner took it to Lake Junaluska where Bishop Sharon Rader was reading the second draft of the episcopal address to the Council of Bishops while its author recuperated at home from knee surgery.
"There was tremendous affirmation from the Council," bishop Craig said. handed to UMCom staffer Jay Voorhees for polishing, the address is almost in its final form. The last addition will be images from the afternoon service of Holy Communion, which will be edited into the final version of the presentation only moments before it begins.
"I feel like a major giver and receiver of gifts," Bishop Craig says, "and I feel I've done a significant piece of work. [The address] has been a constantly emerging work of the Spirit, and it is offered in a way that I believe will help the life of the Spirit be the basis of the Church's life."
by: Tom Slack