Judith Craig
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Judith Craig is a retired American Bishop of the United Methodist Church, whose primary field of service was the USA.
Elected bishop in 1984, she was born on 5 June 1937 in Lexington, Missouri.
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[edit] Education
She graduated (B.A.) from William Jewell College. She completed an M.Div. degree at Eden Theological Seminary in 1961, and an M.A. in Christian Education from Union Theological Seminary in New York City, New York in 1968.
[edit] Ordained Ministry
Judith was ordained to the ministry of the United Methodist Church, in the East Ohio Annual Conference, as a Deacon in 1972, and an Elder in 1974, both ordinations by Bishop Francis E. Kearns. She was appointed Minister of Religious Education (later Associate Minister) of the Epworth-Euclid U.M. Church (1972-76). From 1976 to 1980 Judith was the Pastor of the Pleasant Hills U.M. Church. In 1980 Judith was appointed the Director of the (East Ohio) Conference Council on Ministries.
Judith was elected a delegate to the 1980 and 1984 General and North Central Jurisdictional Conferences of the U.M. Church, in 1980 also serving as the Secretary of the Legislative Committee on Higher Education and Ministry of the General Conference.
[edit] Episcopal Ministry
The North Central Jurisdictional Conference elected Judith a Bishop in 1984. She was assigned to the Michigan Area, 1984-92. In 1992 she was assigned the Ohio West Area, from which she retired in 2000.
As a Bishop, Judith served on the U.M. General Commission on the Status and Role of Women (1984-88), the U.M. General Council on Ministries (1988-92), and the General Board of Publication. Bishop Craig received an honorary Doctor of Humane Letters from Baldwin-Wallace College (1979), another from Adrian College (1985), a Doctor of Divinity degree from Otterbein College (1994), and another D.D. from Lebanon Valley College (also 1994). In 1996 she was honored to be selected by her colleagues on the U.M. Council of Bishops to deliver the Episcopal Address at General Conference.
In retirement, Bishop Craig has served as the Bishop in Residence and a Visiting Professor of Leadership at the Methodist Theological School in Ohio.
[edit] References
- InfoServ, the official information service of The United Methodist Church. [1]
- The Council of Bishops of the United Methodist Church[2]
