Jane Middleton ’78 M.Div.

Bishop Jane Middleton has been a trailblazer throughout her ministry in the United Methodist Church. She was the first woman to serve as the pastor of New Canaan United Methodist Church, District Superintendent of Connecticut, and Bishop of the Harrisburg Episcopal Area. 

 

Her other leadership positions in the New York Annual Conference included chairing the Board of Ordained Ministry and the Council on Ministries. She was elected as head of the clergy delegation to General Conference four times from 1992 to 2004. As Conference Associate Program Director from 1987 to 1991 she was responsible for Spiritual Life programming for clergy, laity, and local churches. She was District Superintendent from 1999 until her election to the Episcopacy by the Northeastern Jurisdiction in 2004.

 

In her role as Bishop, Middleton was a member of the Board of Directors of the Pennsylvania Council of Churches and of the Lower Fairfield County Council of Churches and Synagogues, from which she received recognition as Clergyperson of the Year. She was also a Member of the Board of Directors for the United Methodist General Commission on Ministries and the General Board of Church and Society. She is a member of the Board of Directors of Encounter with Christ, the Permanent Fund for ministries in Latin America and the Caribbean, which has funded over 600,000 of projects for health, education, women and children, and relief from poverty. The Sierra Leone Conference of the United Methodist Church has named a secondary school in Freetown, the Bishop Jane Middleton School.

 

In 2021, she was awarded the Distinction in Congregational Ministry Award by Yale Divinity School.