NEWS STORY: African Methodist Episcopal Church Elects First Woman Bishop

c. 2000 Religion News Service (UNDATED) The Rev. Vashti McKenzie, pastor of a prominent Baltimore church, was elected Tuesday (July 11) as a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church _ the first woman to hold the post in the denomination’s 213-year history. “Because of God’s grace, the stained glass ceiling has been shattered,” McKenzie […]

c. 2000 Religion News Service

(UNDATED) The Rev. Vashti McKenzie, pastor of a prominent Baltimore church, was elected Tuesday (July 11) as a bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church _ the first woman to hold the post in the denomination’s 213-year history.

“Because of God’s grace, the stained glass ceiling has been shattered,” McKenzie told cheering crowds at the quadrennial General Conference of the 2.3 million-member denomination, meeting in Cincinnati.


In remarks just after the election results were announced, McKenzie remembered the women who had been “rejected” before her when seeking ordination as pastor or election as bishop.

“I stand on the shoulders of the unordained women who serve without appointment or affirmation,” she said. “I don’t stand here alone but there is a cloud of witnesses who sacrificed cried, died and gave their very best _ the women who took the heat.”

And McKenzie also remembered the men who have supported ordained women and hoped for a female bishop.

“God desires that we partner in the plan of salvation for he has mandated it from the very beginning and he needed both men and women to be faithful,” she said. “And because men and women have been faithful we are here today.”

McKenzie received the second highest number of votes in the second round of balloting in the bishops’ election. The Rev. Richard Norris of Philadelphia, received the top number of votes _ 874 _ to be the first elected as bishop. A total of four bishops were scheduled to be elected by Tuesday night.

McKenzie received 847 votes. A minimum of 767 votes were needed for election, which occurred with electronic voting for the first time.

Bishop Vinton Anderson of the Second Episcopal District, which includes McKenzie’s church, called her election an “exciting time” for his denomination.


“I’m not surprised because she has a good reputation,” said Anderson, who appointed the church’s first U.S. woman presiding elder. “She’s done serious work. Her ministry is celebrated in many, many ways. … She’s had a strong cadre of women supporting her and men who decided it’s time to elect a woman.”

McKenzie, is pastor of Payne Memorial AME Church in Baltimore, a congregation with 1,700 members. During her 10 years as the church’s pastor, McKenzie has overseen the development of a faith-based nonprofit agency that offers community service projects that include job training for people on public assistance and technology courses for youth.

She has been in ministry for 25 years, previously serving in other preaching and gospel broadcasting capacities.

McKenzie was one of two women among the 42 candidates for bishop considered by more than 1,800 delegates attending the meeting, which ends Wednesday.

The Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry, presiding elder of the Los Angeles-Pasadena District in the church’s Southern California Conference, received the fifth highest number of votes in the first round of voting. She oversees 19 pastors and their churches, whose total membership is between 6,000 and 8,000 members.

Prior to the start of the election, Guidry said she hoped her name recognition from her run for bishop in 1996 would help her win this time around.


Some church members predicted that the election of a woman bishop was more likely with four slots open. The denomination has 20 bishops, 19 leading regional districts and one serving as the church’s ecumenical officer.

Often, newly elected bishops are appointed first to one of the denomination’s five African districts.

On Saturday (July 8), delegates to the meeting narrowly rejected a resolution that would have guaranteed the first woman bishop would be elected.

After the vote _ 667 yes and 716 no _ Bishop John R. Bryant of Texas, who presided over that session, said: “The results of this vote mean there is no set aside or automatic election. Women are free to run and this delegation is free to respond to each candidate irregardless of gender.”

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Several individuals and entities within the predominantly African-American denomination have been outspoken about the need for a woman to be chosen as bishop.

Jayme Coleman Williams, the former editor of the AME Church Review and the first female to serve as a general officer of the AME Church, mounted a campaign to encourage the election of a woman bishop at the church’s General Conference.


“It is time to eliminate gender bias in the African Methodist Episcopal Church,” she wrote in an essay headlined “It’s Late! It’s Time! Let’s Do It! in the quarterly newsletter of the AME Church Connectional Lay Organization published just before the quadrennial meeting.

The denomination’s General Board passed a resolution in 1995 urging a woman be elected in 2000. The Connectional Lay Organization of the AME Church passed a resolution in 1999 affirming the board’s action and seeking a commitment to elect a woman at this year’s General Conference.

At the start of the meeting, it was only known that there would be two bishops positions open, due to the retirement Bishop Robert Thomas of Michigan and Bishop Harold Senatle of South Africa. But two more bishops were “located,” the word AME church officials use to describe the removal of a bishop from active service for a four-year period.

One of the located episcopal leaders is Bishop Vernon R. Byrd of the church’s Arizona-based Fifth Episcopal District, who was among the plaintiffs found liable in a sexual harassment judgment against the church. The church has posted a $4.5 million appeal bond in that case.

But Mike McKinney, spokesman for the General Conference said both Byrd and Bishop H. Hartford Brookins of Tennessee, were located “for health reasons.” He said Byrd’s location had “no relevance” to the suit but he is, in effect, retiring early because he originally was scheduled to retire in 2004.

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