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American bishop
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
.
Biography
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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
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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.
References
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General themes
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Methodist
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Baptist
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Pentecostal
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Catholic
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Other
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