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OHIO EPISCOPAL AREA TASK TEAM

How We Got Here

January 23, 2024

• The North Central Jurisdictional Conference forms a new Ohio Episcopal Area.

September 1, 2024

• Bishop Hee-Soo Jung begins assignment as bishop of both the East Ohio and West Ohio Conferences.

March 2025

• Bishop Jung forms the Ohio Episcopal Area Task Team to explore forming a new, unified Ohio Conference of The United Methodist Church effective January 1, 2028.

May 2025

• Task Team hosts 17 listening sessions for 254 people from East and West Ohio.

July 2025 – June 2026

• Task Team forms and holds meetings for 19 work groups consisting of East and West Ohio staff, clergy, and laity to explore areas associated with a new Conference.

Annual Conference 2026

The Task Team presented this video update:

Following the report, Annual Conference members used the interactive Menti online platform to respond to the following statement: “In three words or less, describe what comes to mind when you imagine a potential unified Ohio Conference.”

The executive summary of the East Ohio Annual Conference three-word responses “reflect a community that is open to the promise of unification, but not without significant caution. The strongest positive themes center on hope, unity, mission, shared resources, stronger capacity and new opportunities for ministry. Participants repeatedly used language that points toward possibility: working together, expanding mission, reaching more people and becoming stronger through shared purpose.

“The cautionary themes are equally important. Respondents named concerns about pace, process, geography, local voice and trust. Words such as rushed, forced, top-down, predetermined, not listened to, too big and loss of voice suggest that resistance is less about rejecting mission-centered collaboration and more about whether the process feels transparent, participatory and practical.”

View the complete summary of East Ohio Annual Conference responses.
View the complete summary of West Ohio Annual Conference responses.

Next Steps

September 12, 2026

• Work group reports will be presented to Task Team members.

September – October 2026

• Work group reports will be presented to Conference governing bodies.

November 2026

• The Task Team will present its report to Bishop Hee-Soo Jung.

December 2026

• The Task Team’s report will be made available to Ohio clergy and laity.

June 2027

• West Ohio and East Ohio Annual Conferences will vote on becoming one Conference.
• Both East Ohio and West Ohio Annual Conferences must approve the proposal by 67% or more, without rounding up, for the new Conference to be formed.

June 24, 2027

• A special online session of North Central Jurisdictional Conference would be held to approve and recognize the new Ohio Conference.

August 27, 2027

• A Joint Unifying Conference would be held to vote on budget and other matters necessary to form the new Ohio Conference.

January 1, 2028

• The new Ohio Conference would become effective.

Bishop’s Prayer as We Develop a New Conference Identity