The Council of Bishops of the African Methodist Episcopal Church announced the following on Friday:
Bishop Harry L. Seawright has been assigned to the Second Episcopal District, vacating his episcopal assignment in the Thirteenth Episcopal District.
Bishop Jeffery B. Cooper, Sr., remains in the Eighteenth Episcopal District and is assigned to the Thirteenth Episcopal District.
The message was signed by Bishop Silvester Scott Beaman, President, Council of Bishops and the Council of Bishops, African Methodist Episcopal Church.
The Thirteenth Episcopal District includes Kentucky and Tennessee.
The Second Episcopal District includes Baltimore, Washington, Virginia, North Carolina, and Western North Carolina.
The announcement follows the death of Bishop Reginald T. Jackson, who had been assigned to the Second Episcopal District.
Jackson, 71, was a civil rights and AME Church leader. Outside of being a religious and political leader, he also had served as the chairman of the board of trustees of Morris Brown College.
A Celebration of Life service for Bishop Jackson was held Dec. 12 at Saint Philip AME Church in Atlanta.
According to Wikipedia, the AME Church was founded by Richard Allen in 1816 when he called together five African American congregations of the previously established Methodist Episcopal Church with the hope of escaping the discrimination that was commonplace in society, including some churches. It was among the first denominations in the United States to be founded for this reason.
The AME Church currently has 20 districts, each with its own bishop: 13 are based in the United States, mostly in the South, while seven are based in Africa. The global membership of the AME is around 2.5 million members, and it remains one of the largest Methodist denominations in the world, according to Wikipedia.
