Bishop John Richard Bryant, born on June 8, 1943, is the Senior Bishop and Presiding Prelate of the Fourth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church

African Methodist Episcopal Church

The African Methodist Episcopal Church, usually called the A.M.E. Church, is a predominantly African American Methodist denomination based in the United States. It was founded by the Rev. Richard Allen in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1816 from several black Methodist congregations in the...

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Biography

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.

Bachelor of Arts

A Bachelor of Arts , from the Latin artium baccalaureus, is a bachelor's degree awarded for an undergraduate course or program in either the liberal arts, the sciences, or both...

 degree in 1965 at Morgan State University

Morgan State University

Morgan State University, formerly Centenary Biblical Institute , Morgan College and Morgan State College , is a historically black college in Baltimore, Maryland, United States. Morgan is Maryland's designated public urban university and the largest HBCU in the state of Maryland...

, his M.Th. degree in 1970 at the Boston University

Boston University

Boston University is a private research university located in Boston, Massachusetts. With more than 4,000 faculty members and more than 31,000 students, Boston University is one of the largest private universities in the United States and one of Boston's largest employers...

 School of Theology, and his D.Min.

Doctor of Ministry

The Doctor of Ministry degree is, according to The Association of Theological Schools in the United States and Canada , a doctoral level degree oriented toward ministerial leadership often in an area of applied theology, such as missions, evangelism, church leadership, pastoral psychology or the...

 degree at the Colgate Rochester Divinity School in 1975.

Bryant also holds several Honorary Doctorates from Paul Quinn College

Paul Quinn College

Paul Quinn College is a private, historically black college located in the Oak Cliff area of Dallas, Texas . Paul Quinn College holds the distinction as the oldest historically black college in the country west of the Mississippi River...

, Wilberforce University

Wilberforce University

Wilberforce University is a private, coed, liberal arts historically black university located in Wilberforce, Ohio. Affiliated with the African Methodist Episcopal Church, it was the first college to be owned and operated by African Americans...

, 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

Baltimore City College

The Baltimore City College , also referred to as The Castle on the Hill, historically as The College, and most commonly City, is a public high school in Baltimore, Maryland, U.S.A. The City College curriculum includes the International Baccalaureate Programme and emphasizes study in the classics...

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Bishop Bryant is the father of Dr. Jamal Harrison Bryant

Jamal Harrison Bryant

Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant. is an African-American preacher and pastor of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in his hometown of Baltimore...

, pastor and founder of the Empowerment Temple AME Church in Baltimore, Maryland, and Dr. Thema Simone Bryant Davis.

Connections to Pentecostalism

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

Prophecy

Prophecy is a process in which one or more messages that have been communicated to a prophet are then communicated to others. Such messages typically involve divine inspiration, interpretation, or revelation of conditioned events to come as well as testimonies or repeated revelations that the...

 and/or divine healing.

Because of all this, Bishop Bryant is considered the father of Neo-Pentecostalism.