Rev. Ruben Saenz Jr. assigned as new Great Plains bishop

A leader in the Rio Texas Conference of the United Methodist Church has been chosen as the second bishop of the Great Plains Conference.

The Rev. Dr. Ruben Saenz Jr., who had been director of connectional ministries and executive director of the Mission Vitality Center in the recently created Rio Texas Conference, was chosen on the third ballot during the South Central Jurisdictional Conference in Wichita on Thursday, July 14. His assignment was announced late Friday, July 15.

He succeeds Bishop Scott Jones, who was announced as the new leader of the Texas Conference, based in Houston.

View a welcome video featuring Bishop Saenz. (English) (Spanish)

Read the full story.

The Great Plains Conference will host a Celebration of Assignment service for Bishop Saenz at 10:30 a.m. Saturday, Oct. 15, at St. Mark’s United Methodist Church in Lincoln, Nebraska.

The event will be broadcast via livestream via the conference’s website at www.greatplainsumc.org/livestream.

FALL CONFERENCE SCHEDULE

Grand Island Trinity

511 N Elm St

Grand Island

October 13, 2016

10:00 am Open-Worship and Communion

10:30 am Anita Crisp w/Ne. UM Foundation

11:30 am Harrietta Reynolds

Noon- Lunch provided by Dickies BBQ

1:00 pm Bishop Saenz and Workshop

Half of Pastors with Bishop for 90 minutes

Other half will attend workshop with Todd Siefert about Use of Technology in Worship

-----after 90 minutes the two groups will switch

3:30 to 6:30 Review with Bishop and Lance

6:30 to 8:30 Bishop reception with laity.