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Number of Churches: 1,159
Membership: 189,369 (as of Dec. 31, 2004)
Number of Active Clergy: 843
Geographic Area: the State of Mississippi
Chief Officer: Bishop Hope Morgan Ward, P.O.
Box 931, Jackson, MS 39205; phone: 601-948-4561; e-mail: bishop@mississippi-umc.org
Offices: The Episcopal Office (office of the
bishop), Connectional Ministries, Finance & Administration, and
Communications offices, and the Media Center are in the United Methodist
Building, located at 321 Mississippi Street in Jackson.
Districts: District offices are in
Brookhaven, Greenwood, Gulfport, Hattiesburg, Jackson, Meridian, New
Albany, Ridgeland, Senatobia, Starkville, and Tupelo.
Significant dates in the history of the
Mississippi Conference:
1799 Rev. Tobias Gibson appointed by Bishop
Francis Asbury to the Natchez Territory from the South Carolina
Conference.
1813 First Mississippi annual conference of the
Methodist Episcopal Church organized.
1844 Southern churches split from Methodist
Episcopal Church, forming the Methodist Episcopal Church, South.
1845 Mississippi Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church continued as Mississippi Conference of the Methodist
Episcopal Church, South.
1865 Northern Methodist Church established a
Mississippi Conference for newly freed black Methodists.
1867 North Mississippi Conference of the
Methodist Protestant Church instituted.
1870 North Mississippi Conference of the MEC,
South, formed from churches in the Memphis, Mobile, and Mississippi
conferences.
1891 Upper Mississippi Conference established
for black churches in the northern half of the state.
1939 Three major branches of Methodism the
Methodist Episcopal Church, the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and
the Methodist Protestant Church unite as The Methodist Church.
1968 The Methodist Church and Evangelical
United Brethren merge denominations to form The United Methodist Church.
(Although Mississippi had no EUB congregations)
1973 Merger of the black Upper Mississippi
Conference of the Central Jurisdiction and the white North Mississippi
Conference, forming the North Mississippi Conference, and merger of the
black Mississippi Conference of the Central Jurisdiction and the white
Mississippi Conference, UMC.
1989 Merger of the Mississippi Conference and
North Mississippi Conference, forming the present Mississippi Conference
of The United Methodist Church.
Organization: The United Methodist Church,
with more than 9.8 million members worldwide, is governed by a General
Conference that meets every four years. The annual and central
conferences elect delegates to the General Conference. The resident
bishop is the presiding officer of the annual conference. The
Mississippi Conference is divided into 11 districts, and each district
is administered by a district superintendent in consultation with the
bishop. The Mississippi Conference meets annually, usually in June, for
its regular business session. An equal number of clergy delegates and
lay delegates from the conference meet together to worship, celebrate
the previous years ministries, and set a course for the coming year.
At the conclusion of each conference, the bishop announces the clergy
appointments, or assignments.
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