photo by Patrick Scriven for WJ Communications
This article originally appeared on the Western Jurisdiction website.
The Rev. Sandra K. Olewine, assistant to the bishop in the California-Pacific Conference, has been elected a bishop by The United Methodist Church’s Western Jurisdiction.
Delegates elected Olewine, 66, on July 12 at the jurisdiction’s meeting at the Centennial Hotel in Spokane on the 17th ballot. She received 84 votes out of 85 valid ballots cast. She needed 57 to be elected. Western Jurisdiction rules require that candidates receive at least two-thirds of valid ballots to be elected.
In her post-election remarks, Olewine thanked her fellow siblings seeking election as a bishop and acknowledged the church still has work to do.
“We did amazing work at General Conference, but we are not yet an inclusive church,” Olewine said.
She said there are people in cities and rural communities who are hungry and in need of housing. There are people needing a sense of belonging, she said. And, she emphasized, with Christian nationalism on the rise, the collective church needs to rise up against it.
“We have work to do,” Olewine said. “I am honored and humbled, and I promise you that together we’re going to do that work.”
Olewine was the second bishop elected at the July 10-13 meeting, after the Rev. Dr. Kristin Stoneking.
Olewine was elected as the sole name on the 17th ballot, after the Rev. Jessica Rooks withdrew.
“I think we need to be united as a jurisdiction,” Rooks said in her withdrawal speech, as Olewine held her hand.
Olewine was elected by the Western Jurisdiction’s 85 voting members on Friday afternoon. The Western Jurisdiction typically seats 100 United Methodist clergy and laity from the seven annual conferences — church regional bodies — forming the jurisdiction. The jurisdiction encompasses the 12 westernmost states in the U.S. and the territory of Guam.
The assignments of bishops in the Western Jurisdiction for the next four years will be announced later in the week.
Her four-year term of service begins Sept. 1. In the United States, bishops are elected to serve for life. Olewine is eligible to serve one quadrennium — the typical four-year period between General Conference and jurisdictional conferences.
An elder in the California-Pacific Conference, Olewine is currently assistant to the bishop and previously was superintendent of the conference’s South District from 2021 through this year. She also has been a board member of the General Council on Finance and Administration, the denomination’s finance agency, since 2016.
Previously, she was senior pastor of First United Methodist Church in Pasadena. She has served in a variety of ministry settings, including as camp counselor, pastor and conference leader. Earlier in her ministry, she was an associate pastor of Los Angeles’ Holman United Methodist Church, under the leadership of the Rev. James Lawson, the renowned civil rights pioneer who died earlier this year. She also was the United Methodist Committee on Relief coordinator for emergency response in Los Angeles following the acquittal of police in the beating of Rodney King.
She previously has served on the National Conference of Christians and Jews. She then was theologian in residence at the Tantur Ecumenical Institute in Jerusalem, followed by serving as the United Methodist Board of Global Ministries liaison to Jerusalem from 1996 to 2006. She received recognition for peace with justice work in Palestine/Israel.
She is a graduate of the University of California, Davis, and holds a Master of Divinity from Claremont School of Theology. She has completed all but her dissertation for a doctorate from the seminary.
In The United Methodist Church, bishops are ordained elders who are called to “lead and oversee the spiritual and temporal affairs of The United Methodist Church.” Bishops, in consultation with district superintendents, are responsible for appointing clergy. They also preside at annual conferences, jurisdictional conferences and General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly.
Initially, U.S. jurisdictional conferences planned not to hold any bishop elections this year. But two unexpected vacancies in U.S. bishop offices have opened the door for two elections to be held in the Western Jurisdiction, which is seeing two of its five episcopal leaders — Bishops Minerva G. Carcaño and Karen P. Oliveto — retire this year. The Book of Discipline says each jurisdiction is entitled to a minimum of five bishops.
Olewine is joining the episcopacy as the denomination seeks to chart a new path after a historic General Conference that saw delegates overturn longtime denomination-wide bans on same-sex marriage and “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy. The Western Jurisdiction has long advocated for ending those restrictions.
