The Rev. Julius H. McAllister Jr., senior pastor of Bethel AME Church in Tallahassee, was confirmed as the 144 th elected bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church Monday.
The selection was made during the 52nd Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church in Columbus, Ohio. The conference opened August 21 and concludes on August 28.
Monday’s election culminates a nearly two-year campaign by McAllister who traveled extensively throughout the United States and abroad to share his message on why he aspired to be bishop in service to AME church delegations and their leaders.
The election signals a lifetime appointment for McAllister, 53, who will actively serve in the position until he reaches the mandatory retirement age of 75. There are 21 active bishops worldwide who oversee the administration and organization of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, along with a team of general officers who manage departments within the AME church.
Monday’s election is also significant in that there were seven bishop positions available. Among the retiring bishops are McAllister’s father, Bishop Julius H. McAllister Sr., Senior Bishop Adam J. Richardson Jr., former senior pastor of Bethel AME Church in Tallahassee, who was elected in 1996, and Frank Madison Reid III, the bishop overseeing the 11 th Episcopal district which includes Bethel AME Church. McAllister Jr.’s late father-in-law was Bishop McKinley Young who died in 2019.
McAllister, who was elevated from bishop-elect to full bishop status during the consecration of bishops closing service Wednesday, was assigned to the AME church’s 9 th District, which includes all of the state of Alabama. Bishop Marvin C. Zanders II, will oversee the 11 th District, which includes Florida and the Bahamas.
This means Bethel AME Church will be in line for a new senior pastor for the first time in 16 years.
According to his campaign biography, McAllister Jr. answered the call to ministry in 1992. He was licensed to preach and admitted to the Northeast Annual Conference of the Seventh Episcopal District (South Carolina) of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1993. He began his pastoral ministry as a member of the ministerial staff at Mount Zion AME Church in Florence, South Carolina and Big Bethel AME Church in Atlanta, Georgia.
Prior to his appointment to the Bethel AME Church in 2008, McAllister Jr. was a youth minister at Oak Grove AME Church in Detroit Michigan, and subsequently, served as pastor of Payne Chapel AME Church in Chicago, Heights, Illinois and the Greater Institutional AME Church in Chicago, Illinois.
McAllister received his bachelor’s degree in criminal justice from South Carolina State University in Orangeburg, South Carolina in 1993, and a Master of Divinity degree from the Turner Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia in 1996. In 2007, he earned the Doctor in Ministry degree from the Chicago Theological Seminary in Chicago, Illinois.
McAllister is married to Deana Young McAllister, assistant superintendent of school management and employee relations for the Leon County Schools District. They are the parents three sons: Julius Harrison McAllister III, Colin McKinley Young McAllister, and Dylan David Jeremiah McAllister, whom McAllister affectionately calls the couple’s “greatest investments.”
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Bethel AME Pastor Rev. Julius H. McAllister Jr. elected 144th bishop of AME Church
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