New York’s historic Abyssinian Baptist Church has elected its new senior pastor, seemingly bringing an finish to a nationwide search to switch the late Rev. Calvin O. Butts, who had served the church for a half-century earlier than his dying in 2022.
The Rev. Kevin R. Johnson, the founding father of the impartial Dare to Think about Church in Philadelphia, was elected Sunday and can assume the brand new submit in mid-July, Abyssinian stated in a press release. He had served as an intern and assistant pastor underneath Butts, who had began trying to find his successor earlier than his dying.
The announcement comes one week after the congregation thought of halting the pastoral search course of and disbanding the search committee over transparency and gender discrimination considerations. One candidate and former Abyssinian assistant pastor, the Rev. Eboni Marshall Turman, had filed a gender discrimination lawsuit towards the church.
Based in 1808, Abyssinian – thought of by many to be the flagship of the Black church in America – turned a well-known megachurch with the political rise of the Rev. Adam Clayton Powell Jr. He leveraged the ability of his pulpit to get elected to the New York Metropolis Council, and later the Congress, representing Harlem.
Johnson, 50, described his new appointment as a sacred accountability and a homecoming.
“Abyssinian isn’t just a church – it’s our non secular dwelling, and I’m honored to construct upon its wealthy legacy,” Johnson stated in a video message shared on Abyssinian’s web site. “Collectively, we are going to advance God’s kingdom, serve our group by God’s grace, affect the world, and form Abyssinian’s subsequent wonderful chapter.
Johnson is a graduate of Morehouse Faculty in Atlanta and earned his Grasp of Divinity at Union Theological Seminary in New York Metropolis. He served as an intern at Abyssinian till 1999, after which started one other stint in 2002 because the assistant pastor, serving in that function for 5 years till he was referred to as to Brilliant Hope Baptist Church in Philadelphia.
He based Dare to Think about with 20 folks in his dwelling after a contentious resignation and break up with the Brilliant Hope in 2014. As we speak, Dare to Think about has 1,500 members.
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