Speaker

Bishop Gregory V. Palmer

Bishop Gregory V. Palmer was elected to the episcopacy in 2000, while serving in the East Ohio Conference as senior pastor of the United Methodist Church of Berea. He served eight years as bishop of the Iowa Conference and then four years in the Illinois-Great Rivers Conference before being assigned to the West Ohio Conference in 2012.

Prior to his seven years at UMC Berea, Palmer was superintendent of the Youngstown District, was the organizing pastor of James S. Thomas UMC in Canton and had served Werner and East Glenville UMCs.

Palmer has served The United Methodist Church in many ways: as a member of the Board of Ordained Ministry, the General Council on Ministries, and the Senegal Task Force of the General Board of Global Ministries; as President of the Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance of Canton; and as a General and Jurisdictional Delegate.

He has also served on the Ministry Study Commission, been a study leader for Schools of Christian Mission, a teacher at Pastor's School in the Burundi Annual Conference, and a trustee for Baldwin-Wallace College, Ohio Wesleyan University, and United Theological Seminary. He was elected President of the Council of Bishops from 2008-2010.

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Palmer received his undergraduate degree from George Washington University, and later earned his Master of Divinity from Duke University. In 1999 he received an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Baldwin-Wallace College in Berea.