(RNS)– Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield, a leader of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, has actually passed away 2 months into her retirement, the denomination revealed on Thursday (Oct. 3).
Byfield, 74, a previous president of the AME Council of Bishops and a current chair of social action for the church, passed away suddenly on Thursday in Indianapolis. The reason for her death was not revealed.
“Bishop Anne Henning Byfield was an unique kind of Bishop. One who constantly led with a spirit of humbleness and prayer,” AME Church Senior Bishop Wilfred J. Messiah stated in a declaration published on his workplace’s Facebook page. “Her sage knowledge and modest heart will really be missed out on.”
Byfield was most just recently the leader of the traditionally Black denomination’s 13th Episcopal District, headquartered in Nashville, Tennessee. In 2023 she hoped with other AME clergy after the deadly shooting of 6 individuals at the city’s Covenant School and later on signed up with the Rev. William Barber II and other leaders in showing for completion of weapon violence.
Bishop E. Anne Henning Byfield. (Photo © AME Church)
She formerly led districts with churches in Indiana and the Caribbean.
Byfield was understood for her imagination, having actually composed unique services for church utilize along with prayers and poems. According to The Christian Recorder, the main publication of the traditionally Black denomination, Byfield composed the list utilized at the 2005 funeral service of civil liberties activist Rosa Parks in Detroit.
She likewise was a leader at AME-affiliated schools in Ohio, acting as chancellor of Wilberforce University and on the board of Payne Theological Seminary.
Most just recently she was associated with the AME’s reaction to an enormous embezzlement case in which the Rev. Jerome V. Harris, who had actually been the executive director of the Department of Retirement Services for 21 years, was implicated of taking from the denomination’s retirement fund.
In 2022, when Byfield was president of the Council of Bishops, the church took legal action against Harris and others, implicating them of embezzlement and scams. “With the aid of our legal group, the AMEC neighborhood is dedicated to holding those responsible liable and recuperating embezzled funds,” Byfield stated at the time.
Harris passed away in May.
At the denomination’s quadrennial General Conference kept in August in Columbus, Ohio, the AME Church revealed a settlement arrangement in a class-action match submitted by AME clergy. If authorized by a judge, the settlement would offer $20 million, though the lawsuits declared an overall loss of $90 million.
In a preaching at the General Conference, Byfield preached on handling injury with God’s aid.
“God can see what you can’t see,” she stated. “The old methods do not constantly work. Following customs of power does not constantly work. Blaming each other does not constantly work. … This battle is various. God is defending the life and the soul of the church, not to damage it.
