New bishop sees opportunity to share love, unity
CRANBERRY TWP — New United Methodist Bishop Cynthia Moore-Koikoi “can’t wait to see how God is going to work in and through and among us,” she told Western Pennsylvania delegates and leaders shortly after being assigned to serve in the 23-county Western Pennsylvania Conference of the United Methodist Church.
She will begin her new assignment Sept. 1, the same day her predecessor, Bishop Thomas Bickerton, will become bishop of the New York area.
Bickerton had overseen the 830-church conference that contains an estimated 170,000 Methodists for 12 years.
An installation service for Moore-Koikoi has been scheduled for 2 p.m. Oct. 22 at the Crossfire Campus of Butler First United Methodist Church, 1802 N. Main St. Ext.
The daughter of a United Methodist pastor who served 40 years in ministry in the Baltimore-Washington Conference, Moore-Koikoi said that as a bishop she is committed to work toward a “vision of a diverse church that embraces justice and the life-saving love of Christ.”
She acknowledged that it won’t be easy, but said, “I remind myself that God has got this. God is in control. My role and the church’s role is to experience the reign of God here on earth and point that out to people.”
Acknowledging deep divisions in the denomination around human sexuality issues, she said that after being notified of her assignment, “God said to me: ‘Cynthia, you’ve been talking about this. We have an opportunity to show the world what unity really looks like. You asked for this.’”
“I know there are folks in the room who are diametrically opposed to what I believe about this issue,” she added. “But we have an opportunity to show the world what it might look like for brothers and sisters to dwell together in unity. And it is going to be that witness that claims souls for Jesus the Christ.”
Bickerton had said the challenges his successor would face is one faced by the church as a whole.
“The church is in a state of transition. It’s a struggle felt by many old mainline denominations. There are internal issues that have to be addressed, issues of human sexuality and sustainability, how do we spread God’s message in an inviting way,” said Bickerton earlier this summer.
Moore-Koikoi said, “We won’t have to say a word about who God is. Seeing us working together … is going to say something about who God is. And there are going to be people who will say, ‘If they can do it, they must have something inside of them that is greater than what is outside in that world. And I want to find out about that.’”
Moore-Koikoi earned a Bachelor of Arts degree in psychology from Loyola College in Maryland in 1988, and a Master of Arts and advanced certification in school psychology from the University of Maryland in 1992. She worked as a school psychologist for Anne Arundel County Public Schools for 17 years before answering her call to the ordained ministry.
According to Jackie Campbell, United Methodist communication director, Moore-Koikoi is still living in Baltimore until the first of September. She will be working out of the United Methodist Center in Cranberry Township.
