McKenzie, Vashti Murphy
1947-present · Contribution: 1990-2021
AME bishop; ecumenical leader
Became the first woman elected bishop in the more than 200-year history of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 2000, later becoming the first woman to serve as Titular Head of the denomination and, in 2021, President and General Secretary of the National Council of Churches
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Quick facts
- Born
- 1947, Baltimore, Maryland
- Active since
- 1990
- Category
- Religious & Spiritual Leadership
- Best known for
- First woman elected bishop in AME Church history
Impact on the world
McKenzie broke the episcopal gender barrier in the denomination Richard Allen founded, then rose to lead American ecumenical Christianity, extending Black women's authority to the highest levels of church governance.
An alternative history
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Sources
- Source lookupFind
BlackPast.org
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Related visionaries
Allen, Richard
1760-1831
Founded the African Methodist Episcopal Church, the first independent Black religious denomination in the United States; became its first bishop
Harris, Barbara Clementine
1930-2020
Became the first woman consecrated a bishop in the 500-year history of the worldwide Anglican Communion when she was ordained suffragan bishop of the Episcopal Diocese of Massachusetts in 1989, breaking a barrier that had stood across the Communion's more than 165 member countries
Payne, Daniel Alexander
1811-1893
First African American president of a college in the United States; transformed the AME Church's ministry into a formally educated clergy and helped found Wilberforce University
Hall, Prathia LauraAnn
1940-2002
Credited as the originator of the phrase “I have a dream,” spoken during a 1962 prayer vigil that Martin Luther King Jr. attended and later asked her permission to echo in his own preaching, while serving as one of the Student Nonviolent Coordinating Committee's first female field secretaries and later becoming a pioneering Baptist minister and womanist theologian