BISHOP LAWRENCE L. REDDICK III

On July 1, 1998, Lawrence L. Reddick III became the 51st bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church. On Sunday, July 5, 1998, he was subsequently assigned as presiding bishop of the Tenth Episcopal District, comprising the annual conferences in Jamaica, Haiti, Liberia, Ghana, and Nigeria.

Born June 20, 1952, in Huntsville, Alabama, Bishop Reddick's spiritual journey began at Phillips CME Church, Huntsville, Alabama, where he was baptized and reared as a child. He is one of seven children of Reverend and Mrs. L. L. Reddick, Jr. He became a full member of Phillips CME Church upon profession of faith in June 1959.

A graduate of Ohio Wesleyan University of Delaware, Ohio (Bachelor of Arts degree) and Duke Divinity School of Durham, North Carolina (Master of Divinity), he also received the honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from the United theological Seminary of Monroe, Louisiana.

Bishop Reddick was licensed to preach in 1966 in Athens, Alabama (Frazier Chapel CME Church) by the Reverend R. e. Brooks. He was ordained deacon in 1968 and ordained elder in 1969 by Bishop E. P. Murchison in the North Central Alabama Annual Conference. He was admitted into full connection in 1972 by Bishop C. A. Kirkendoll.

His ministerial appointments included: pastor of Antioch CME Church (Paint Rock, Alabama) where he led in building a new church edifice, 1968-1970; youth minister of Lane Metropolitan CME Church (Cleveland, Ohio) under the pastorate of Reverend Anzo Montgomery, 1970-1972; interim minister of St. James CME Church (Lima, Ohio), Spring 1972; interim minister of Frazier Chapel CME Church (Athens, Alabama), Fall 1972; pastor of Faucette Memorial CME Church (Durham, North Carolina), 1975-1977; pastor of St. John CME Church (Winston-Salem, North Carolina), 1977-1978; pastor of Scruggs Memorial CME Church (St. Louis, Missouri), 1978-1982; pastor of St. Mark CME Church (Birmingham, Alabama), 1987-1990; pastor of Adolphus Chapel CME Church (Holly Springs, Mississippi), 1992-1994; and presiding elder of the Aberdeen-Tupelo District (North-East Mississippi Conference), 1994-1998.

He was elected editor of The Christian Index, the official publication of the CME Church in 1982, a position he held until his election to the episcopacy in 1998, making him the longest serving editor in the history of the denomination.

He served as secretary of the Carolina Annual Conference as well as the Southeast Missouri, Illinois and Wisconsin Annual Conference; member of the Commission on Hymnal and Ritual; research assistant to Bishop Bertram W. Doyle as head of the Division of Research and History of the CME Church; a member of the Commission on Cooperation and Counsel between the CME Church and the United Methodist Church.

For the 1998-2002 quadrennium, he is chairman on the Commission on Ritual and Worship, a member of the Board of Directors of the Congress of National Black Churches, was vice-chairman of the Commission on the CME Millennial Celebration and was a member of the Compilation Committee for The Book of Discipline, 1998.

Bishop Reddick is the father of five children, Jon Bradley (born 1977), Janice Patrice (born 1981), twins Iris Lucille and Rose Elizabeth (born 1991), and Samuel Lawrence (born 1992). He is the grandfather of Jesiree Dillon.