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Overview
Biographical Note
Scope and Content
Arrangement
Preferred Citation
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| Record Creator: | United Methodist Church (U.S.) Episcopal Areas |
| Title: | Guide to the Mississippi Episcopal Area Records |
| Title: | Mississippi Episcopal Records |
| Date Span: | 1982-2000 |
| Abstract: | The records of the Mississippi Episcopal Area reflect the administrative life of the bishop in charge. The Mississippi Episcopal Area Records contain the working files of Bishop Marshall (Jack) Leroy Meadors episcopal tenure from 1992 to 2000. The diverse records range from day to day operations to episcopal responsibilities within and beyond the Mississippi Annual Conference. Meadors' records illustrate a balanced leadership style with reasonable piety and social concerns on every level of denominational responsibility. |
| Extent: | 2.88 cubic feet |
| Identification: | gcah.rg.8889 |
The records of the Mississippi Episcopal Area reflect the administrative life of the bishop in charge. Bishops are elected to this special ministry through the Jurisdictional Conference from a pool of clergy elders eligible for the office as determined by their respective annual conferences. Episcopal assignments are determined by the Jurisdictional Committee on Episcopacy in consultation with the College of Bishops. Each Bishop assumes her or his post on the first day of September following the Jurisdictional meeting. A bishop cannot serve in an area where the person’s latest annual conference membership was held.
Bishops are set apart as a separate ministry to oversee and supervise the districts and parishes within their appointed geographic area. The denomination authorizes these ministers to guard the faith, order, liturgy, doctrine and discipline of the general church. District superintendents are appointed by the bishop to help administer the denominational directives in specific geographic areas. Bishops ordain, consecrate, commission and appoint the clergy to specific churches and ministries under their immediate charge. Bishops are also expected to serve the larger church through the general agencies, boards and commissions. They are in many ways the faces of the denomination when General Conference is no longer in session.
The Mississippi Episcopal Area Records contain the working files of Bishop Marshall (Jack) Leroy Meadors episcopal tenure from 1992 to 2000. The diverse records range from day to day operations to episcopal responsibilities within and beyond the Mississippi Annual Conference. Meadors' records illustrate a balanced leadership style with reasonable piety and social concerns on every level of denominational responsibility.
Correspondence makes up the bulk record type in this collection. The content of the correspondence has a wide range. There are many letters expressing thanks to the bishop for attending church or civic functions as well as support for various individuals. Church issues related to individual churches, and polity or social justice reveals the day-by-day work of the bishop when handling topics of local, national or international foci. Homosexuality and is one of the key contested issues that reveals a deep divide in positions amongst church congregations and membership typical of the 1990s amplified by regional cultural norms and mores. Pastoral appointments conflict in letters reflect the joy and frustrations of both clergy and laity. The negative letters reveal frustration over lack of church growth, theological divisions and personality conflicts. Yet there are other topics such healthcare, hunger as manifested in the Amos Network, higher education in the form of scholarship donations and the Black College Fund, Millennium Fund for Mission which focused on church building projects, Mississippi gambling laws as evidenced by Meadors' letters to politicians on both state and federal levels. He wrote many of these same political leaders on other social just issues as well
Meadors chaired the Council of Bishops Task Force on Children and Poverty. Poverty and the subsequent social problems associated with it that was an issue Meadors took personally. Both in the general correspondence and office files illustrated the project’s scope and role Meadors played in the Council's fight against children's related poverty.
The office files also contain information on tobacco, ministerial duties, agendas, finances, reports, minutes, newsletters all dealing with various aspects of a bishop's professional responsibilities.
Materials have been arranged in the following manner.
basic
Marshall LeRoy Meadors
When citing material from this collection please use the following format: Direct reference to the item or its file folder, Mississippi Episcopal Area Records, United Methodist Church Archives - GCAH, Madison, New Jersey. Do not make use of the item's call number as that is not a stable descriptor.
Denominational agency journals, reports and committee minutes are open to the public unless they have been closed in accordance with requirements specified in the Discipline. Denominational agency staff office records are closed for twenty-five (25) years after creation. Personnel records are closed for at least 75 years. Appeals can be made to the General Commission on Archives and History, P. O. Box 127, Madison, NJ 07940.
Detailed use restrictions relating to our collections can be requested from the office of the archivist at the General Commission on Archives and History. Photocopying is handled by the staff and may be limited in certain instances. Before using any material for publication from this collection a formal request for permission to publish is expected and required.
Records of the Council of Bishops
Records of the Kansas Episcopal Area
Records of the World Division of the General Board of Global Ministries
Subject Files Series Records
Records of the General Commission on the Status and Role of Women
| Call Number | Folder Title | Date(s) |
