(RNS) — The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church launched a get-out-the vote effort, chose new bishops, and finalized the restructuring of some departments during its quadrennial meeting in late July.
During the five-day meeting of the historically Black denomination, held July 24-28 in Greensboro, North Carolina, U.S. bishops were urged to get their constituents informed and involved in the election season, ramping up voter registration and education efforts in their districts.
Bishop Daran Mitchell, from left, Bishop Anthony Witherspoon, Bishop Melanie Miller, Bishop Dwayne Walker and Bishop Bernardo Ngunza were elected during the 52nd General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Greensboro, N.C. (Photo © Roberick Charles for Hill Will Photography, courtesy of AME Zion Church)
“Each area was challenged to register a minimum of 1,000 new voters,” said the Rev. George McKain, a consultant and former public affairs director for the denomination, and to inform double that number about issues that were key to their local areas.
Some 3,000 people attended the meeting, where they heard speeches from several prominent guest speakers, including the Rev. William Barber II, an anti-poverty activist who urged conference-goers to mobilize voting among low wage, poor, and infrequent voters.
The Rev. Al Sharpton, president of the National Action Network, spoke at the conference during an evening dedicated to freedom and social justice.
Founded in 1796 and long known as the “Freedom Church,” the AME Zion Church, which McKain said has 1.2 million members, aims to return to the mission at its roots through this year’s focus on voting, according to the spokesperson.
“It never attempted to just be against anybody or to prove anything to anybody,” McKain
told Religion News Service on Monday (July 29). “It was always about striving to minister effectively for the freedom and liberation of all people.”
Bishop Mildred Hines, the first woman bishop, was among the leaders memorialized during the quadrennial meeting. She died in 2022 at the age of 67.
Among those elected during the meeting was Bishop Melanie Miller, who will lead the Western District, which includes several states in the American West. Miller, who was pastor of St. Paul AME Zion Church in Ewing, New Jersey, becomes the second and now only living woman bishop in the historically Black denomination.
Bishop Bernardo Ngunza, who will lead the Central Southern Africa District, is the first Indigenous bishop to serve in the district that includes several African countries, including South Africa.
The others elected to lead districts of the AME Zion Church are: Bishop Daran Mitchell, who pastored Trinity AME Zion Church in Greensboro and will lead the Mid-West District; Bishop Anthony Witherspoon, who led Metropolitan AME Zion Church in St. Louis and will oversee the Southwestern Delta District; and Bishop Dwayne Walker, who pastored Little Rock AME Zion Church in Charlotte, North Carolina, and will lead the Alabama-Florida District.
The new bishops will join others in leading a restructured AME Zion Church, said McKain.
He said that a new church growth and development department is the result of a merger of home missions and evangelism. Likewise, the church literature department was folded into the Christian education department.
“It’s been a process and this is the conclusion of it,” McKain said.
