2009 Annual Conference Speaker

The guest speaker for the 2009 Annual Conference session of the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference will be Bishop Hee-Soo Jung. Bishop Jung was elected by the North Central Jurisdiction in 2004 and has been serving the Northern Illinois Annual conference and the Chicago Episcopal Area since that time.

Prior to his election to the episcopacy Jung served as a district superintendent in the Wisconsin Conference. Before that, Jung chaired the Department of Religion and Philosophy and was Dean of the University Chapel at Kangnam University and Seminary in Kyungki-Do, Korea. Jung has served as pastor of congregations in Wisconsin, California, Texas and Korea and was responsible for establishing a new Korean congregation at University United Methodist Church in Madison, Wisconsin and while serving a congregation in Seoul Korea was also director of the Young Factory Workers' Professional School, Urban Ministry.

 Bishop Jung earned a Doctor of Philosophy from University of Wisconsin-Madison, a Master of Arts in Institute of Buddhist Studies (affiliated with the Graduate Theological Union), Berkeley, California, and Dongguk University Graduate School, Seoul, and, graduated from Methodist Theological Seminary in Korea.

Bishop Jung was one of the main preachers at the 2008 General Conference Session of the United Methodist Church. You can read the text of his message to the General Conference titled "Jesus, Remember Me," or listen to an audio recording of the presentation.