The Rev. Carol Thompson, director of the Western Small Church Rural Life Center and a pastor in the Oregon-Idaho Annual Conference, will head the Office of Town and Country Ministries of the General Board of Global Ministries.

Her selection was announced jointly by the Rev. R. Randy Day, general secretary of the agency, and Bishop Edward W. Paup of the Portland Episcopal Area of The United Methodist Church.

Ms. Thompson will assume her new appointment July 1, at the conclusion of the 2002-03 conference year. She is currently the pastor of the New Meadows (Idaho) United Methodist Church in addition to serving as executive director of the rural life center of the Western Jurisdiction. She has led the center since 1994.

“We are extremely pleased to have the Rev. Carol Thompson joining our staff,” Mr. Day said. “She has distinguished herself as a local, conference, jurisdictional and national leader in the field of rural ministry.” Ms. Thompson succeeds Gladys Campbell, who has retired.

Ms. Thompson will be returning to a professional relationship with the General Board of Global Ministries. She was a US-2 missionary early in her career, working in Eloy Community Center, Eloy, Arizona. She later was director of that center before entering the ministry. She is a Rural Chaplain and an active member of the United Methodist Rural Fellowship.

As executive secretary for Town and Country Ministries, Ms. Thompson will coordinate relationships between the general board and the several United Methodist and rural associations and networks. Her office, located within the Community and Institutional Ministries Program Area, also relates to ecumenical organizations in the area of rural ministry.

Carol Thompson was graduated from the Lower High School, Lowell, Oregon, and the University of Oregon at Eugene. Her seminary degree is from the Vancouver School of Theology, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.

She was ordained deacon in 1983 and a United Methodist elder in 1998. Ms. Thompson has served pastorates in Washington, Oregon, and Idaho. She has been active in the civic life of the communities in which she has ministered.

From early 1999 through June, 2002, Ms. Thompson was affiliated with the Northwest House of Theological Studies, Salem, Oregon, first as field work director and then as director of spiritual formation and practice. She was part of the host committee for the Sixth Assembly of the World Council of Churches in Vancouver, British Columbia.

	See Also... Topic: GBGM news |  Rural |  Geographic Region: World |  Source: GBGM Press Releases
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Date posted: May 14, 2003