An Episcopal Area in the United Methodist Church (UMC) is a basic unit of this denomination. It is a region presided over by a resident bishop that is similar to a diocese in other Christian denominations. Each annual conference in the UMC is within a single episcopal area; some episcopal areas include more than one annual conference. Episcopal areas are found in the United States as well as internationally. In some cases, such as the Western Jurisdiction of the U.S. as well as some places internationally, an episcopal area covers a very large territory (several U.S. states or countries, respectively).
Read more about Episcopal Area: Beginnings, 1939 Methodist Reunion, 1968 Methodist-E.U.B. Merger, Central Conferences
Famous quotes containing the word area:
“If you meet a sectary, or a hostile partisan, never recognize the dividing lines; but meet on what common ground remains,—if only that the sun shines, and the rain rains for both; the area will widen very fast, and ere you know it the boundary mountains, on which the eye had fastened, have melted into air.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)