John Richard Bryant

Last updated

Bishop John Richard Bryant (born June 8, 1943) a retired bishop who was the former Senior Bishop and Presiding Prelate of the Fourth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Contents

Biography

Bryant is the son of the late Bishop Harrison James and Edith Holland Bryant. He was elected and consecrated the 106th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church at the 1988 General Conference in Fort Worth, Texas.

He earned his B.A. degree in 1965 at Morgan State University, his M.Th. degree in 1970 at the Boston University School of Theology, and his D.Min. degree at the Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1975.

Bryant also holds several Honorary Doctorates from Paul Quinn College, Wilberforce University, Payne Theological Seminary and Virginia Seminary. He received the Outstanding Alumnus Award from both Boston University School of Theology and Morgan State University. He was inducted into the Hall of Fame of his high school, Baltimore City College.

Bishop Bryant is the father of Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant, Senior Pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church in Dekalb County, Georgia near Lithonia and Dr. Thema Simone Bryant-Davis. Jamal’s ex-wife Gizelle Bryant is a star on the reality series The Real Housewives of Potomac .

Connections to Pentecostalism

Bishop Bryant and his wife, Reverend Dr. Cecilia Williams-Bryant, garnered a reputation for turning St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts into what people called a "rocking church" because of their support of Pentecostal religious practices.

When assigned to Bethel A.M.E. Church in Baltimore, Maryland in 1975, the congregation grew to over several thousand members. Again, the Bryants brought to Bethel a sense of Pentecostalism and 14 percent of the congregation reported that they regularly practiced glossalalia or "speaking in tongues" and 59 percent reported that they had the gifts of prophecy and/or divine healing.

Because of all this, Bishop Bryant is considered the father of Neo-Pentecostalism.

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Richard Allen (bishop)</span> American educator, author, writer, and black leader (1760–1831)

Richard Allen was a minister, educator, writer, and one of the United States' most active and influential black leaders. In 1794, he founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), the first independent Black denomination in the United States. He opened his first AME church in 1794 in Philadelphia.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Methodist Episcopal Church</span> Predominantly African American Protestant denomination

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the AME Church or AME, is a Methodist Black church. It adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology and has a connexional polity. The first independent Protestant denomination to be founded by Black people, AME welcomes and has members of all ethnicities.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church</span> Predominantly African-American Christian denomination

The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church, or the AME Zion Church (AMEZ) is a historically African-American Christian denomination based in the United States. It was officially formed in 1821 in New York City, but operated for a number of years before then. The African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church adheres to Wesleyan-Arminian theology.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Black church</span> Christian congregations in the U.S. that minister predominantly to African Americans

The black church is the faith and body of Christian denominations and congregations in the United States that predominantly minister to, and are also led by African Americans, as well as these churches' collective traditions and members. The term "black church" may also refer to individual congregations, including in traditionally white-led denominations.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Interdenominational Theological Center</span>

The Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) is a consortium of five predominantly African-American denominational Christian seminaries in Atlanta, Georgia, operating together as a professional graduate school of theology. It is the largest free-standing African-American theological school in the United States.

Boston University School of Theology (STH) is the oldest theological seminary of American Methodism and the founding school of Boston University, the largest private research university in New England. It is one of thirteen theological schools maintained by the United Methodist Church. BUSTH is a member of the Boston Theological Institute consortium.

Edward Gonzalez Carroll was an American bishop of the United Methodist Church, elected in 1972.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Daniel Payne</span> Methodist bishop and educator (1811–1893)

Daniel Alexander Payne was an American bishop, educator, college administrator and author. A major shaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME), Payne stressed education and preparation of ministers and introduced more order in the church, becoming its sixth bishop and serving for more than four decades (1852–1893) as well as becoming one of the founders of Wilberforce University in Ohio in 1856. In 1863, the AME Church bought the college and chose Payne to lead it; he became the first African-American president of a college in the United States and served in that position until 1877.

Alexander Preston Shaw was notable as an African-American pastor, editor, and bishop of the Methodist Episcopal Church and the Methodist Church. He was elected and consecrated to the episcopacy in 1936. Shaw held the distinction of being the first African-American bishop of the Methodist Church to preside full-time over a predominantly white Annual Conference: the Southern California-Arizona Conference, which met that year at the University of Redlands.

James Levert Davis is the 123rd elected and consecrated bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. He was elected to the office of bishop at the 47th General Conference of the AME Church in 2004. He served as the presiding prelate of the 19th Episcopal district of the church comprising KwaZulu-Natal, Gauteng, Limpopo, Mpumalanga, North West and Free State in the Republic of South Africa. At the 48th General Conference of the AME Church in 2008 he was appointed the Presiding Prelate of the 9th Episcopal District, which comprises the State of Alabama.

Since 1937, the United States presidential inauguration has included one or more prayers given by members of the clergy. Since 1933 an associated prayer service either public or private attended by the president-elect has often taken place on the morning of the day. At times a major public or broadcast prayer service takes place after the main ceremony most recently on the next day.

Jamal Harrison Bryant is an American minister, author and former political candidate. He is the senior pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ernest A. Lyon</span> American diplomat (1860–1938)

Ernest A. Lyon was an African-American minister, educator and diplomat.

Edgar Amos Love was an American bishop with the Methodist Episcopal and a civil rights spokesman. He is also noted as a founder of Omega Psi Phi, the first international fraternity founded at an HBCU.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Hood Theological Seminary</span> Christian seminary in Salisbury, North Carolina

Hood Theological Seminary is a Christian seminary sponsored by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church in Salisbury, North Carolina. It is a graduate and professional school sponsored by the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and approved by the University Senate of The United Methodist Church. From its founding in 1879 until 2001, the seminary was part of Livingstone College; it is now independent. The seminary is accredited by the Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada.

Pentecostalism is a renewal movement within Protestant Christianity that places special emphasis on a direct personal relationship with God and experience of God through the baptism with the Holy Spirit. For Christians, this event commemorates the descent of the Holy Spirit upon the followers of Jesus Christ, as described in the second chapter of the Book of Acts. Pentecostalism was established in Kerala, India at the start of the 20th century.

William Levington was an African-American clergyman and teacher. The third African American ordained as a priest in the Episcopal Church of the United States, he established the first African-American congregation south of the Mason–Dixon line, and worked to educate African American youth.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Morris Brown</span>

Morris Brown was one of the founders of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, and its second presiding bishop. He founded Emanuel AME Church in his native Charleston, South Carolina. It was implicated in the slave uprising planned by Denmark Vesey, also of this church, and after that was suppressed, Brown was imprisoned for nearly a year. He was never convicted of a crime.

Jeffery Tribble is an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church and a professor of ministry with research interests in Practical Theology, Congregational Studies and Leadership, Ethnography, Evangelism and Church Planting, Black Church Studies, and Urban Church Ministry. Academics and professionals in these fields consider him a renowned thought leader. Tribble's experience in pastoral ministry allows for his work to bridge the gap between academic research and practical church leadership.

References