Bishop Woodie White

Denomination: United Methodist Church (UMC)
Organization: Candler School of Theology, Emory University, Atlanta, GA

Bishop Woodie White was the bishop of the Indiana Area conference of the United Methodist Church, and now is Bishop in Residence at Candler School of Theology, Emory University, in Atlanta, GA.

Born in New York City's Harlem neighborhood in the 1930's, Bishop White came up from a troubled youth to become one of the most respected religious leaders in America. After graduation from Boston University School of Theology in 1961, he was a pastor in Worcester, Massachusetts and Detroit, Michigan at the height of the Civil Rights movement. In the early 1960s he was arrested in Jackson, Mississippi and fined a thousand dollars for trying to worship at Saint Luke's Methodist Church—where almost three decades later he was to be a guest preacher. Bishop White served for 15 years as General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race, and in 1996-97, he was President of the Council of Bishops for the United Methodist Church.

Bishop White is the author of three books, including Racial Transition in the Church, Confessions of a Prairie Pilgrim and Conversations of the Heart. He is also nationally known for his annual "Birthday Letter to Dr. King," in which he writes a personal letter to Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

From 1969-1984 he was General Secretary of the General Commission on Religion and Race of the United Methodist Church. Elected a Bishop in 1984, he served the Illinois Great Rivers Area prior to coming to Indiana. He was president of the General Board of Discipleship from 1988-1992 and president of the Council of Bishops in 1996-1997.