Presiding Bishop

Supervisor, Women’s Missionary Society Grace and Peace to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in this Bicentennial Year!

Dr. Susan and I have been honored to serve the Thirteenth Episcopal District in this quadrennium. We are grateful for the love and cooperation of the people who helped to make our efforts fruitful and our burdens light.

Like many places throughout our Zion, the 13th District is a place of significant demographic and ecclesiastical shifts. Some rural places have found a stable equilibrium, but most suffer from the effects of aging and shrinking populations. Young people move away, and local economies change. Older urban populations also are in the midst of transitions which often leave historical denominational strongholds abandoned in areas which are no longer fertile for the stronger ministries we offer. Changing locations and re-tooling our ministries require tremendous investments of analysis and adaptation. This comes at a time when the general population finds less interest in mainline denominations. Nevertheless, we are beginning to address these challenges, and we thank God for insight and direction.

We appreciate the 13th District for stepping out in new directions and allowing us to experiment with innovative approaches to denominational ministry. While many of these initiatives are still maturing, we are pleased with some of the initial results.  Annual Conference and District meetings are shorter to accommodate economic realities and those with secular employment.

 We have minimized the receiving of offerings in District and Annual Conference meetings. Supporting the work through reports from church has afforded greater Efficiency and Accountability. It has also given us an opportunity to encourage the support of the local church.

 Ministerial Training through a joint district effort has given clergy development a new, enriched environment.

 We have fostered greater cooperation among the respective components. We focused on young adult and men’s ministry in addition to our well established missionary and lay endeavors.

 We have conserved and made wise investments of available resources. We have been accountable and transparent.

God bless the Thirteenth Episcopal District! We love you! God bless African Methodism as we embrace our Incredible Future.

Jeffrey N. Leath 128th Bishop Number of Conversions 1,585 Number of Baptisms 1,126 Number of Accessions 2,796 Total Members 12,387 Registered Voters 8,328 Total Churches 163 Thompson Chapel AME Church Total Pastors 159 Mission status Total Presiding Elders 8 Kentucky Annual Conference Number of Annual Conferences 5 Rev. Avis Thompson, pastor Total Number of Preachers 343 Number of Persons Ordained 34 General Budget Fund $1,891,529

Kairos Community AME Church, Nashville, Tennessee Lee Chapel AME Church, Nashville, Tennessee Purchased existing church, parsonage Built new $3.8 million sanctuary and community life center, Rev. Roderick D. Belin, pastor Rev. Garrett Copeland, pastor

St. Paul AME Church, Memphis, Tennessee Purchased new sanctuary Rev. Linda Evans, pastor 13th District Necrology 2012-2016  Rev. Cecil Napier  Rev. James L. Rose  Rev. B. R. Booker  Rev. George L. Byrd  Rev. Dr. James Walker  Rev. Menjou Miller  Rev. Dr. Cheryl Hoskins  Rev. Doris Patton  Rev. Frank Buckley  Rev. Gloria Hall  Rev. Albert Brown  Dr. Deborah T. Dennie  Rev. M. M. Cole  Rev. Iola Bridges Gardner  Rev. Obadiah K. Twiggs African Methodism has its beginnings in the organization of the Free African Society in 1787, and in our official organization in 1816 under the auspices of our Founding Father, Bishop Richard Allen. The roots of the Kentucky/Tennessee Episcopal District, currently the 13th Episcopal District, finds its beginnings in the ministry and legacy of the Bishop William Paul Quinn.

As early as 1822 a debate arose in the Baltimore Annual Conference relative to the Western Territories and the Annual Conference under whose jurisdiction they should be placed. The record refers to it as "the country west of the Allegheny Mountains." On August 28, 1830, the Western Annual Conference was organized at Hillsboro, Ohio, embracing all the territory west of the Allegheny Mountains.

In 1833 the Reverend William Paul Quinn was transferred West, and began his great work west of the Alleghenies. He became, in 1840, one of the founders of the Indiana Conference (whose composition included, at that time, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois). That same year (1840), he was given the oversight of, along with his other charges, all the circuits of the Indiana Conference, and also appointed by the General Conference as the general missionary, to "plant the AME Church in the far West." He was the first and the only person at this time chosen by a General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to do general missionary work.

At the General Conference of 1844, Reverend Quinn reported such an amazing account of growth and organization in the West, that the mantle of the Bishopric was thrust upon him. Because of his great work, African Methodism continued its movement and growth West, and Southward, into Kentucky, Tennessee and beyond.

In 1852, the General Conference ordered the division of the Indiana Conference because of vastness and set aside the Missouri Conference embracing Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee, Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Missouri. 13th Episcopal District is an outgrowth of the Missouri Conference organized in 1844 by Bishop William Paul Quinn. The Missouri Annual Conference was organized at Louisville, Kentucky in September of 1855, whose composition included both Kentucky and Tennessee.

Again, due to such overwhelming growth, in 1868 the Missouri Conference was divided, and out of that came the Kentucky Annual Conference and Tennessee Annual Conference (along with others). Both Conferences, at this organization, encompassed their respective states.

The "increase" continued: In 1876 the Tennessee Conference was divided into the Tennessee and West Tennessee Conferences. In 1880 the Kentucky Conference was divided into the Kentucky and West Kentucky Conferences. And, finally, in 1900 the Tennessee Conference was divided into the Tennessee and East Tennessee Conferences.

Also, after this last division, the Tennessee Conference was often referred to as the "Central" Tennessee Conference.

Over the years the regions of Kentucky and Tennessee, and their respective Conferences, have been reassigned to, and designated by, many different Episcopal District titles as the church has grown and re-organized itself; and during our history, Kentucky and Tennessee have not always been part of the same District: for example, at the 1872 General Conference, Kentucky was part of the Third District, while Tennessee was part of the 6th District, and in 1876 Kentucky and Tennessee were together again, along with other states, to make up the Third District.

At the 1920 General Conference, Kentucky and Tennessee made up the whole 14th District. The mantle of "Thirteenth" was placed upon the regions of Kentucky and Tennessee at the 1936 General Conference, and it has remained so to this day as our history and legacy get brighter with each new opportunity to worship and serve the Most High God and the Church of Allen! (13th District History is paraphrased from documented historical statements of Rev. Robert Keesee and Rev. William RT Hale)

Tennessee Conference August 30, 1868 St. Paul, Nashville Kentucky Conference August 30, 1868 Quinn, Louisville West Tennessee Conference September 7, 1868 Avery, Memphis West Kentucky Conference 1880 St. Paul, Richmond East Tennessee Conference October 30, 1900 Warren, Chattanooga

Kentucky Conference St. Paul, Lexington West Kentucky Conference Quinn, Louisville East Tennessee Conference Warren, Chattanooga West Tennessee Conference Avery, Memphis Tennessee Conference St. John, Nashville Rt. Rev. Jeffrey N. Leath Susan J. Leath, MD Presiding Bishop Supervisor, WMS

Dr. Richard A. Lewis Rev. Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor, III Treasurer/CFO AME Finance Dept. Editor, The Christian Recorder

Dr. Paulette Coleman Rev. Dennis Dickerson, PhD Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Hill Retired Retired Retired Sister Ora L. Easley Sister Gloria Ward Brother Marcus Henderson Sister Faye Walker Administrator Administrator AME Trustee AME Trustee Clergy Family Christian Debutante-Master Secretary Information Center

Sister Doris Bell Rev. Lee Russell Brown Sister Andriette C. Bryant Brother Darwin Eldridge Asst. Recording Secretary Editor WMS Commissioner Treasurer Lay Organization RAYAC Disaster Relief/M.I.T.E. Lay Organization

Sister Lesa Halfacre Dr. Roberta Hill Brother Clay Holliday, Jr. 2nd Vice President Historian Secretary WMS Conn-M-SWAWO + Pk’s RAYAC

Sister Billie Dixon Irving Brother John Thomas, III Advisor to the President Advisor to the President Lay Organization Lay Organization Rev. C. Robert Finch Rev. Linda F. Thomas-Martin Rev. Sidney F. Bryant Rev. Troy Merritt, Jr. North Memphis District South Memphis District North Nashville District Nashville District South Nashville District

Rev. Dr. Terence L. Mayes, Sr. Rev. James E. Smith Rev. Dr. William W. Easley, Jr. Chattanooga District Lexington District Louisville-Paducah District Sister Gwen Dillihunt Sister LaTanya Germany Sister Anjelica Jones Sister Dorothy Ealy WMS YPD Director YPD President Lay Organization

Sister Angel Wilson Rev. Randall Webster Rev. Dr. Janie Dowdty-Dandridge Sister Dianna Golphin RAYAC Sons of Allen (SOA) Women in Ministry (WIM) MSWAWO

Dr. Roberta Hill Sister Fordie Franklin Sister Sherri’ Pointer Christian Education Church Sunday School Christian Debutant-Masters Commission (CDMC)

Dr. Terence Mayes, Sr. Brother Joseph Turner Evangelism Believe, Inc. 13th Episcopal District African Methodist Episcopal Church 500 8th Ave South, Suite 201 Nashville, TN 37203 (615) 242-6814

[email protected] www.ame13.org

Bishop Jeffrey N. Leath, Presiding Prelate