Bishop Hee-Soo Jung is Wisconsin’s United Methodist bishop and has served in this role since September of 2012. Prior to leading the Wisconsin Conference UMC, Bishop Jung served eight years as bishop of the Northern Illinois Conference (Chicago area) and as a pastor and District Superintendent in Wisconsin prior to that. Bishop Jung is President of United Methodist Commission on Relief (UMCOR) and a member of the Board of Directors for the General Board of Global Ministry, JustPeace and UM Korean National Plan.
The Rev. Peter J. Miano is a United Methodist minister and an Elder in the New England Annual Conference. He is the founder and Executive Director of The Society for Biblical Studies and has been living and serving in Israel-Palestine since 1992. He has earned graduate degrees in New Testament Studies from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (M. Div.), Harvard Divinity School (Th. M.) and Boston University School of Theology (S.T.M.). After serving local churches in the Boston area for 10 years, he left parish ministry to move to Israel where he served as the United Methodist Liaison in Jerusalem from 1992-1995 with the General Board of Global Ministries. Since that time he has been appointed to The Society for Biblical Studies and has pioneered unique travel-study pilgrimages and immersion experiences in Israel-Palestine, Jordan, Egypt, Turkey, Greece, Italy, the United Kingdom, Brazil and Morocco and now spends as many as eight months each year abroad, mostly in Israel-Palestine. In this capacity has developed a range of study-travel-encounter programs for American Christians. These programs focus on contextual biblical studies, pilgrimage, fact finding, advocacy, and the role of Christians in the Israeli-Palestinian conflict. Rev. Miano is the author of The Word of God and the World of the Bible: An Introduction to the Cultural Backgrounds of the New Testament (London: Melisende, 2001). He is the editor of and contributor to Prophetic Voices on Middle East Peace: A Jewish, Christian, and Humanist Primer on Colonialism, Zionism, and Nationalism in the Middle East (Claremont: Claremont Press, 2016). He lectures and leads seminars frequently in the U.S. and London on the role of the Church in the Middle East, Zionism, the Israeli-Palestinian conflict and various topics in biblical studies.
Bishop Ott dedicated almost 30 years of ministry to the Wisconsin Annual Conference before being elected Bishop of the West Michigan and Detroit Conferences of the United Methodist Church in 1992. During his time in Wisconsin, he served as a local church pastor, an area staff person, Conference council director, and District Superintendent. In retirement, Donald Ott was employed by the Council of Bishops to coordinate the Episcopal Initiative on Children and Poverty from 2001-2004. He served the Council as Retiree Correspondent from 2008-2012. He was a long time member of the governing Board of the Wisconsin Council on Children and Families, and the City of Pewaukee Committee on Public Works.
