Karen Oliveto

Karen Oliveto
Resident Bishop, Mountain Sky Episcopal Area
Oliveto in 2011
Church	United Methodist Church
Diocese	Mountain Sky Annual Conference (after the 2018 merger of the former Yellowstone Annual Conference and Rocky Mountain Annual Conference)
In office	July 1, 2016 – present
Previous post(s)	Senior Pastor, Glide Memorial UMC
Orders
Ordination	1983
Consecration	2016

Karen Oliveto (born April 4, 1958^[1]) is an American bishop. She is the first openly lesbian bishop to be elected in the United Methodist Church. She was elected bishop on July 15, 2016, at the Western Jurisdictional conference.^[2] Her four-year term of service began September 1, 2016 and she currently serves as the bishop of the UMC's Mountain Sky Conference (created in 2018 when the UMC's Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Conferences merged during Oliveto's tenure as bishop in both conferences);^[3][4] she was officially installed on September 24.^[5] At the time of her election, she was the senior pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.^[6] Oliveto is married to Robin Ridenour, who is a deaconess in the United Methodist Church's California-Nevada Conference.^[2]

Biography

Originally from Long Island, New York, she was born on April 4, 1958, and raised in West Babylon, which is on the south shore of Long Island.^[7] She grew up in the Babylon United Methodist Church (New York) and had her call to ministry at the age of 11.^[8] She preached her first sermon at 16 and began working as a student pastor when she was 18.^[9]

In the early 1980s, she was inspired by Julian Rush, a youth minister based in Colorado, who made national headlines, when Bishop Melvin E. Wheatley of the Rocky Mountain Conference (a predecessor of the Mountain Sky Conference), appointed him to St. Paul Methodist Church in Denver as an openly gay man.^[10][11]

"Without someone like Julian," Bishop Oliveto said at the time of his death in 2023, "I would have lived in despair, totally wondering how can I rectify that the God who made me called me into this, but the church doesn’t want me and I think my life would have been much different."^[10]

She has served parish and campus ministries in rural and urban settings in both New York and California.^[12] In 2004, she performed the first legal same-gender marriage held in a United Methodist Church^[13][14] during SF’s “Winter of Love”.^[15] She has served as the associate dean of academic affairs at Pacific School of Religion in Berkeley, where she also taught United Methodist history, doctrine, polity, and evangelism as an adjunct professor for 12 years.

She was the senior pastor of the 12,000 member Glide Memorial UMC for eight years, becoming the first woman to lead one of the UMC's 100 largest membership churches.^[16][17]

Education

Oliveto is a graduate of Pacific School of Religion (M.Div., 1983) and Drew University, where she received a PhD in religion and society (2002) as well as a BA (cum laude) in psychology (1980) and a MPhil (1991).^[18][19] Her Ph.D. dissertation topic was: "Movements of Reform, Movements of Resistance: Homosexuality and The United Methodist Church. A Case Study".^[20]

Status as bishop

On April 28, 2017, the United Methodist Church's high court ruled 6-3 that while her lesbian status was in violation of the church's policies governed by the Book of Discipline, she could still retain her position as bishop and the church's Western Jurisdiction would handle the matter.^[21] The judicial council also ruled that it did not have jurisdiction to review her nomination, election, or assignment.^[22]

Personal life

Oliveto is married to Robin Ridenour, who is a deaconess in the United Methodist Church. They met when volunteers at a junior high church camp. They began dating in 1999 and were married in 2014.^[23][24]

Ordained ministry

Pastor, Bloomville UMC, Bloomville, New York 1983-1986

Campus Minister Ecumenical House Campus Ministry, San Francisco State, 1989-1992

Pastor Bethany UMC, San Francisco 1992-2004

Associate Dean of Academic Affairs/Director of Contextual Education, Pacific School of Religion, Berkeley, CA 2004-2008

Adjunct Professor of United Methodist Studies at Pacific School of Religion, 2004-2016

Adjunct Professor, DMin program at Drew University, teaching "Prophetic Leadership in Congregation and Community" 2012

Adjunct Professor of Practical Theology, Brite Divinity School (TX), teaching "Evangelism in Methodist History and Practice", 2015

Senior pastor. Glide Memorial Church, San Francisco. 2008-2016

Resident bishop of the Mountain Sky Area of The United Methodist Church, 2016–present^[19][25][26]

See also

• Homosexuality and Methodism
• LGBT-affirming religious groups
• Julian Rush
• Gene Leggett
• Paul Abels

References

1. Communications, United Methodist. "Bishop Karen Oliveto - The United Methodist Church". The United Methodist Church.
2. Communications, United Methodist. "Western Jurisdiction elects openly gay United Methodist bishop - The United Methodist Church". The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on 2016-07-18. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
3. River, Brick. "Bishop". www.rmcumc.org.
4. "Bishop". www.yacumc.org.
5. Church, Rocky Mountain Conference of The United Methodist. "Installation Service for Bishop Karen Oliveto - 24/09/2016". Evensi.
6. Kennedy, Merrit (16 July 2016). "United Methodist Church Elects First Openly Gay Bishop, In Defiance Of Church Rules". NPR.
7. "West Babylon New York - West Babylon LongIsland.com". www.longisland.com. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
8. "United Methodists approve first openly gay bishop". The Columbus Dispatch. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
9. "News". www.cnumc.org. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
10. Arizarry, Jaleesa (9 December 2023). "Leader in Colorado's fight against AIDS in Colorado dies". Denver, Colorado: KUSA-TV. Retrieved 30 July 2024. The Colorado AIDS project started in 1983. At the time, there was one staff member, two volunteers and eight clients.
11. "Bishop insists on appointing homosexual". Latrobe Bulletin. Latrobe, Pennsylvania. 12 April 1982. p. 11. Retrieved 30 July 2024 – via newspapers.com. A United Methodist bishop is standing firm on his decision to appoint a homosexual minister to a Denver church and says he isn't bothered by the possible church trial that could result.
12. "In Memory of Lizzie Glide, A Church Honors Her Mission". wordpress.com. 31 March 2014. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
13. "Pastor faces complaint for performing gay marriages". archives.umc.org. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
14. "Reconciling Ministries Network". 23 October 2004. Archived from the original on 23 October 2004. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
15. "SF celebrated the 'Winter of Love' 14 years ago". ABC7 San Francisco. 12 February 2018. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
16. "Bishop Karen P. Oliveto" (PDF). www.rmcumc.org. Retrieved 2024-06-11.
17. Goodstein, Laurie (28 April 2017). "Methodist High Court Rejects First Openly Gay Bishop's Consecration". The New York Times. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
18. "Executive Leadership - GLIDE". 23 March 2016. Archived from the original on 23 March 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
19. "Bishop Karen Oliveto - The United Methodist Church". 11 September 2016. Archived from the original on 11 September 2016. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
20. "Movements of reform and movements of resistance [microform] : homosexuality and the United Methodist Church : a case study /". ResearchGate. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
21. "Karen Oliveto, first openly gay bishop, in violation of Methodist church law, court says". 28 April 2017.
22. Communications, United Methodist. "Commentary: Attorney on confusion over Oliveto's status - The United Methodist Church". The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on 2017-05-08. Retrieved 2017-05-09.
23. Miller, Emily McFarlan (20 July 2016). "First Openly LGBT United Methodist Bishop: 'This Is the Time'". Sojourners. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
24. "Married lesbian consecrated United Methodist bishop". United Methodist News Service. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
25. "Distinguished Alumni/ae - Pacific School of Religion". 8 January 2019. Archived from the original on 8 January 2019. Retrieved 25 January 2019.
26. "Karen Oliveto" (PDF). Retrieved 2024-06-11.

External links

• Karen Oliveto at Blogspot