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Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling has been appointed to serve for the next four years as the episcopal leader of the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware Conferences.
Bishop Easterling began her role as leader of the BWC in September 2016 and became bishop of Pen-Del in September 2021 when the two conferences were affiliated.
Bishops serving beyond eight years in the same annual conference is unusual in The United Methodist Church. However, Bishop Easterling was granted a missional exemption by the Northeastern Jurisdiction Committee on Episcopacy for her important work in leading the innovative affiliation between the two conferences and the missional action planning initiatives she has undertaken to create and nurture vitality in the Area’s local churches.
The new episcopal area in which she will serve is one of six newly configured areas in the Northeastern Jurisdiction. The names of the areas will be developed after consultation with the Committee on Native American Ministries. In The United Methodist Church, an episcopal area is a geographic region presided over by a resident bishop.
The following bishops have been assigned to other areas in the Northeastern Jurisdiction:
Eastern Pennsylvania and Greater New Jersey -- Cynthia Moore Koikoi
New England and New York -- Thomas Bickerton
Susquehanna and Upper New York - Hector Burgess Nunez
West Virginia -- Debra Wallace-Padgett
Western Pennsylvania -- Sandra Steiner Ball
Bishop Easterling was the first woman bishop to serve the 240-year-old Baltimore-Washington Conference. Prior to being consecrated as a bishop in 2016, she served as a pastor and a superintendent in the New England Annual Conference, where she was ordained an Elder in 1997.
Leaders in the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences are celebrating Bishop Easterling’s appointment as their resident bishop, praising her for her strong, bold, innovative, and justice-seeking leadership, her compassion, unwavering faith, and willingness to dream big, new dreams for the church and its people. [Read more in Monday’s e-connection.]
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