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Western North Carolina United Methodists welcome new bishop

Staff reports

Published: September 19, 2008

United Methodists from the Western North Carolina Conference will greet their new bishop and celebrate the assignment of Bishop Larry M. Goodpaster at a Service of Welcome.
It begins at 3 p.m. Sunday in Providence United Methodist Church, 2810 Providence Road, Charlotte.
An offering will be received to honor Bishop Goodpaster and his wife, Deborah, and to fund storm-relief efforts by the United Methodist Committee on Relief. UMCOR is the humanitarian aid agency of The United Methodist Church. Its mission is to alleviate human suffering. One hundred percent of each donation goes directly to the project; none is used for overhead or administration.
Goodpaster on Sept. 1 began his tenure as bishop in the Western North Carolina Conference. A bishop is a clergyman elected to give general oversight to spiritual and worldly interests of the church. The bishop carries out administrative functions, presides at annual conferences and performs other duties. A bishop is normally assigned for a term of four years, but may be reassigned to an area for a second four-year term.
Goodpaster served as bishop for the past eight years in the Alabama-West Florida Conference, an area that includes the Florida panhandle and southern Alabama. Prior to his 2000 election as bishop, he was a pastor and district superintendent in the Mississippi Conference that covers the entire state of Mississippi
Beginning in 2010, Goodpaster will start a two-year term as president of the United Methodist Church's Council of Bishops. The council includes all United Methodist bishops from throughout the world.
Goodpaster is also the bishop for Southeast Asia Mission (Cambodia, Vietnam, Laos and Thailand).
Goodpaster, 60, earned a bachelor's degree from Millsaps College in Jackson, Miss., and master's and doctoral degrees at Candler School of Theology, Atlanta, Ga. He has honorary degrees from Birmingham-Southern College and Huntingdon College, both in Alabama. He is married to the former Deborah Cox; they have two daughters and two grandchildren.
Goodpaster succeeds Bishop J. Lawrence McCleskey who retired Aug. 31 after serving as bishop of the Western North Carolina Conference for the past four years.
The Western North Carolina Conference includes the part of the state from Greensboro to Albemarle westward. It counts 294,000 members in 1,124 churches. The conference headquarters is in Charlotte.