First female United Methodist Bishop elected from northern Illinois area makes history

Bishop Tracy S. Malone has been assigned as resident bishop of the East Ohio Conference of the United Methodist Church, effective Sept. 1, 2016.

She was serving as the district superintendent of the Chicago Southern Region of the Northern Illinois Conference and was dean of the cabinet when she was elected to the Episcopacy on July 13 in Peoria, Ill.

Prior to her appointment as superintendent, she served as the senior pastor of Gary United Methodist Church in Wheaton, Illinois. She is the first female bishop elected from the Northern Illinois Conference of the United Methodist Church, the first African-American female elected from the NIC and the first bishop from the NIC elected in the last 20 years.

The daughter of the late Rev. Willie Smith, Malone said, as a child of the church, she has been shaped along her faith journey for a moment such as this.

"Friends, I stand before you as one who feels very blessed. I feel blessed for the journey and blessed by your prayers and confidence in my leadership. You raised me and formed me. I consider it a privilege and an honor to serve the church," said Malone after being introduced a newly elected bishop.

The election took place in Peoria, Ill., where more than 180 delegates gathered July 13-16 at the North Central Jurisdictional Conference, which represents nine episcopal areas from across the Midwest.

Bishop Sally Dyck was reappointed to the Chicago Episcopal area for another term of four years from 2016-2020. Dyck was first appointed to the NIC in 2012 after serving as the Bishop of the Minnesota Annual Conference of The United Methodist Church.

"I'm delighted to come back to the Northern Illinois Conference," said Dyck. "We started some big things in the last year to help us as an annual conference become stronger and more efficient to live out our core values of helping resource the local church. We have more work to do and I'm happy to be back to help us move forward."

As of July 14, the United Methodist Church already was making history this year - electing the most women in any new class of bishops in the denomination or its predecessor bodies.

All told, four U.S. jurisdictions elected seven women bishops. Four of the new episcopal leaders are African-American women. Since 2012, the denomination has had no active African-American women bishops following the retirement of Bishop Linda Lee. The Western Jurisdiction also elected the first openly gay female bishop in The United Methodist Church, Rev. Karen Phyllis Oliveto, who served as the senior pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco, California.

For more information, visit www.umcnic.org or www.umc.org.