Karen Oliveto | |
|---|---|
| Resident Bishop, Mountain Sky Episcopal Area | |
 Oliveto in 2011 | |
| Church | United Methodist Church |
| Diocese | Mountain Sky Annual Conference (after the 2018 merger of the former Yellowstone Annual Conference and Rocky Mountain Annual Conference) |
| In office | July 1, 2016 – present |
| Previous post(s) | Senior Pastor, Glide Memorial UMC |
| Orders | |
| Ordination | 1983 |
| Consecration | 2016 |
Karen Oliveto (born April 4, 1958[1]) is an American bishop. She is the first openly lesbian bishop to be elected in the United Methodist Church. She was elected bishop on July 15, 2016, at the Western Jurisdictional conference.[2] Her four-year term of service began September 1, 2016 and she currently serves as the bishop of the UMC's Mountain Sky Conference (created in 2018 when the UMC's Rocky Mountain and Yellowstone Conferences merged during Oliveto's tenure as bishop in both conferences);[3][4] she was officially installed on September 24.[5] At the time of her election, she was the senior pastor of Glide Memorial Church in San Francisco.[6] Oliveto is married to Robin Ridenour, who is a deaconess in the United Methodist Church's California-Nevada Conference.[2]
- ^ Communications, United Methodist. "Bishop Karen Oliveto - The United Methodist Church". The United Methodist Church.
- ^ a b Communications, United Methodist. "Western Jurisdiction elects openly gay United Methodist bishop - The United Methodist Church". The United Methodist Church. Archived from the original on 2016-07-18. Retrieved 2016-07-16.
- ^ River, Brick. "Bishop". www.rmcumc.org.
- ^ "Bishop". www.yacumc.org.
- ^ Church, Rocky Mountain Conference of The United Methodist. "Installation Service for Bishop Karen Oliveto - 24/09/2016". Evensi.
- ^ Kennedy, Merrit (16 July 2016). "United Methodist Church Elects First Openly Gay Bishop, In Defiance Of Church Rules". NPR.