Meet Bishop Peggy Johnson
The Rev. Peggy A. Johnson was elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church at the Northeastern Jurisdictional Conference in Harrisburg, PA, on July 17, 2008. On the following day, prior to a Service of Consecration, she learned that she would be assigned to The Philadelphia Area.
On September 1, 2008, Bishop Johnson began her assignment to lead nearly 1,000 churches in The Philadelphia Area, comprised of the Eastern Pennsylvania and Peninsula-Delaware Annual Conferences. She will be one of nine active bishops in the Northeastern Jurisdiction, which includes thirteen annual conferences in the northeastern United States.
Bishop Johnson, born in 1953, was baptized and grew up in the Methodist Church, and felt a call to ministry early in life. “I remember at the age of five, taping on a mustache and preaching to my dolls,” she said, acknowledging her childhood notion that preachers were men. In confirmation she felt a call to ministry as well.
She pursued a degree in Music Education at Lebanon Valley, a United Methodist-related college in Eastern Pennsylvania, and graduated in 1975. “Lord let me do music! I did have a chance, but then I lost my voice,” Bishop Johnson said. “I had a soul searching time. I thought God was calling me into Christian Education. Then I saw a deaf choir for the first time. I thought, ‘That rocks! Music – and you don’t have to sing!’ I fell in love at first sight.”
Johnson, who was born with one eye and has an artificial eye, said that she has always had a heart for the disabled community. While attending Asbury Theological Seminary in Kentucky, where she met her husband, Rev. Mike Johnson, she felt a call to ministry specifically with deaf people and people with disabilities.
In her ministry, Bishop Johnson has served a four-point country charge, as campus minister for Gallaudet University (a leader in higher education for deaf persons located in Washington, DC), and as co–pastor (with her husband, Mike) of Lansdowne United Methodist Church, the suburban Baltimore church where she was baptized, confirmed, and married.
Then she was appointed to pastor Christ UMC of the Deaf in Baltimore, MD. “Deaf people are just like the hearing community – they just teach us more about community and communication,” Bishop Johnson related. Over the years, besides directing a staff of four, she has also directed Christ UMC’s deaf choir, which has performed many times around the world, including at General Conference 2008 in Ft. Worth, TX. While at Christ UMC, she earned her D. Min. from Wesley Theological Seminary (1993).
Bishop Johnson believes in the inclusion of persons with disabilities, “not just to receive, but to be co-ministers with us in the priesthood of all believers! Often we think we’re going to help those people - but no - they help us see things with wonderful new perspective and add to the gifts we have as a body. Without them we’re not fully complete; we need their gifts for being the fully functional Body of Christ.”
“Part of the role of bishop is pastoral, to keep us in love with God,” she explained. “Another part of the role is to encourage leadership and to create a culture of call, continually calling people to ordained and lay ministry.”
Having been pastor of Christ UMC of the Deaf in Baltimore for 20 years, Bishop Johnson was endorsed as a candidate for bishop by the Baltimore-Washington Conference and the Association of Physically Challenged Ministers.
She was a four-time delegate to General and Jurisdictional Conference (1996-2008), a board member for the UM General Board of Higher Education and Ministry from 1996 to 2000, and a consultant on deaf ministry to the UM General Board of Global Ministries, 2001-2004.
Ministry is in her blood, as her family roots stem from both the Evangelical United Brethren church (her maternal great-great grandfather built an EUB church in Baltimore and his ten children in turn planted churches) and the Salvation Army, as her paternal grandfather worked with William Booth, its founder, who was a Methodist minister.
Bishop Johnson’s husband, Rev. Mike Johnson, is an ordained Elder of The United Methodist Church, and served Lansdowne UMC in Baltimore, MD, for sixteen years. The Johnsons are parents of two grown sons, Peter (26) and Gabriel (24).
EDUCATION AND HONORS
Lebanon Valley College - B.S. - Music Education – 1975
Asbury Theological Seminary - M. Div. – 1980
Wesley Theological Seminary - D. Min. – 1993
"Circuit Rider of the Year" - UM Publishing – 1990
"Pillar of Faith Award" - Howard Divinity School – 2006
APPOINTMENTS
Mt. Pleasant UM Charge - Frederick, MD (rural-cross cultural)
Gallaudet University Campus Chaplain - Washington, DC
Lansdowne UMC - Baltimore, MD (suburban)
Christ UMC of the Deaf - Baltimore, MD (multi-cultural)
Wesley Theological Seminary - Adjunct Faculty
OTHER
General and Jurisdictional Delegate 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008
Board Member – UM General Board of Higher Education and Ministry - 1996-2000
Consultant – UM General Board of Global Ministry (Health and Welfare) 2001-2004
Baltimore Washington Conference Board of Ordained Ministry - 1995-2008
Volunteers in Mission trips: Jamaica, Kenya, Cuba, Dominican Republic
