c. 1996 Religion News Service

(WASHINGTON) On his last Sunday as pastor of Metropolitan African Methodist Episcopal Church, Bishop William P. DeVeaux baptized a baby, showed off his church’s basement expansion and preached a poignant sermon of farewell.”If God loves you and you understand that, it will be all right,”he assured his congregation.”It’s love that takes you through a transition. It’s love that takes you through new bishops and new pastors.” DeVeaux, 55, delivered that advice, it seemed, not only to his congregants but also to himself. He was preaching about his own turning point from serving as pastor of an influential congregation in the nation’s capital to being elected a bishop of his denomination.

And, like many other newly elected bishops in this historically black and distinctly American denomination, DeVeaux will serve at least four years in Africa.

The tradition of assigning new bishops to Africa is a matter of both pride and contention in the AME Church, which began in Philadelphia in 1787. Candidates lead vigorous, competitive campaigns for the prestigious posts, culminating in an election at the denomination’s quadrennial General Conference. But some American members of the church want their U.S. leaders to stay closer to home, while some African members are calling for more of their own to be placed at the top.”It’s something that we continue to debate,”said the Rev. Dennis C. Dickerson, historiographer of the denomination.”As of the last General Conference (which ended in July), the tradition of sending the newly elected bishops to Africa has held.” Dickerson, a history professor at Williams College in Williamstown, Mass., says that though the majority of the church’s 3.5 million members live in the United States, an estimated 500,000 reside in Africa.

The AME Church’s presence in Africa is due to a combination of factors: missionary activity and a movement among American blacks in the late 19th century to return to Africa. Among the most prominent AME missionaries was Bishop Henry M. Turner, who established AME churches in Sierra Leone and Liberia. He was also instrumental in a historic merger between the AME Church and the Ethiopian Church in South Africa in 1896.

DeVeaux, who has spent 10 years at the helm of this Washington church known as the”cathedral of African Methodism,”is bound for Maseru, Lesotho, in September, to serve as administrator of the church’s 18th Episcopal District in southern Africa. He will move from leading a congregation that hosted President Clinton’s inaugural prayer service to overseeing about 100 AME churches in Lesotho, Swaziland, Mozambique and Botswana.

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Bishops of the denomination’s five African districts appoint pastors, help candidates to the ministry get necessary training, develop new congregations and oversee church institutions _ from schools to clinics to publishing houses _ in the countries within their jurisdictions. In many of the countries, which struggle with poverty and economic woes, the bishops strive to meet social needs, long a mission of the denomination.

(END OPTIONAL TRIM)”Social action has been a part of the AME Church since the beginning,”said DeVeaux of the denomination that grew out of a protest against slavery and discrimination against black members in the Methodist Episcopal Church.”If you’re not doing something social, you’re not representing the Gospel.” But even as DeVeaux departs for Africa, some church members living there insist that more African clergy be appointed bishops.”There’s a silent, whispering cry to consider leadership from abroad also to be part of the inclusive leadership of the African Methodist Episcopal Church,”said the Rev. Robert J. Eckert, the South African-born pastor of Coppin Memorial AME Church in Chicago.

Eckert, a Capetown native who received his post-secondary education in the United States, looks forward to the day when his denomination seeks more African-born bishops.”When (American) bishops go to South Africa or to overseas work, people generally accept them because that’s African Methodism,”said Eckert.”The quest is that the tradition be changed or that the tradition be more inclusive of leadership from other places. When the church does that, then what is perceived as territorial limitations will have vanished.” There have only been two African-born bishops in the denomination. Francis H. Gow, born to a South African mother and an American father, was elected in 1956 and served African districts until his death in 1968. Harold B. Senatle, another native South African, was elected in 1984 and now serves the 15th Episcopal District, which includes the western part of South Africa, Namibia and Angola. Like Gow, Senatle has only served districts in Africa.

Some of the protests about the lack of African-born leadership have risen beyond the level of a whisper.

Earlier this year, the A.M.E. Church Review, a scholarly quarterly, published an article that cited protests at the January celebration of the 100th anniversary of African Methodism in South Africa. Outside a worship service attended by thousands, a dozen people stood with signs that read,”We Are Free But the Church in SA Is Still in Bondage”and”The Origin of Our Leaders Are Right Here at Home Not Abroad in America.” (BEGIN SECOND OPTIONAL TRIM)

African political leaders who also are lifelong members of the AME Church spoke out at another session marking the centennial, urging more African leadership in the church, the article said.”In Zimbabwe it is only the AME Church that continues to deny indigenous followers senior church leadership roles,”said Mayor Abei Siwela of Bulawayo, Zimbabwe.”Previously white-led denominations have opened doors to indigenous leadership. How can the church of Africa deny the people of Africa the opportunity to share in the running of the church at senior levels?” (END SECOND OPTIONAL TRIM)

Bishop Adam J. Richardson, 48, of Tallahassee, Fla., another new bishop who will oversee an African AME district, acknowledged the calls for more African-born officials.”There is a need for indigenous leadership but the resources are primarily here (in the United States) and we’re going to have to deal with that as a denomination,”said Richardson, who has been pastor of Tallahassee’s Bethel AME Church for more than 17 years.”They need support from the outside. In some areas where I am (bishop), for example, there are pastors who make less than $25 a month _ and that’s with our help.” Richardson already has had a taste of the enormous challenges he will face administrating a district that includes Liberia, a region plagued by a six-year civil war.”I’ve been trying to make some contacts with some of the pastors and presiding elders in the area but it is really difficult,”he said.

Because of the unrest in Liberia, Richardson expects to do some of his work from the United States and probably will set up his African headquarters in Ghana. His district also includes Sierra Leone, Nigeria and the Ivory Coast.

Despite the difficulties that confront American bishops in Africa, Judie Ponds, a longtime member of Metropolitan AME Church, can see a positive side to the tradition that takes Richardson and DeVeaux to Africa.”I think it brings about a relationship that is yet to be seen of bridging the gap of the African-Americans in this country and the business and social interests of … our brothers and sisters in Africa,”she said.

But Ponds, a real estate development consultant, also wished the denomination could find a way to offer new bishops opportunities, yet keep them close to home.”We just hate to see him go,”she said after attending DeVeaux’s last service with more than 600 people.

Bishop Vinton Anderson, the new bishop of the Second Episcopal District, which includes Washington, D.C., knows from personal experience that bishops’ assignments to Africa are not always understood.

He recalled that his son, who was 8 years old when Anderson was assigned to the South Africa district in 1972″asked his mother whether all of the bishops are sent to Africa to combat duty.” But despite the risks and challenges, Richardson and DeVeaux see many benefits to sending new bishops to Africa.”I think that having junior bishops like myself, hungry for the work, a passion for trying to do mission, really wanting to be useful, is really to the advantage of the people that we will be serving because the energy level is higher, the interest is higher,”Richardson said.”It’s not like we are novices to ministry. We’re just novices to the episcopacy.”

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