Presiding Bishop
Supervisor, Women’s Missionary Society
Grace and Peace to the African Methodist Episcopal Church in this Bicentennial Year!
Dr. Susan and I have been honored to serve the Thirteenth Episcopal District in this quadrennium.
We are grateful for the love and cooperation of the people who helped to make our efforts fruitful
and our burdens light.
Like many places throughout our Zion, the 13th District is a place of significant demographic and
ecclesiastical shifts. Some rural places have found a stable equilibrium, but most suffer from the
effects of aging and shrinking populations. Young people move away, and local economies change.
Older urban populations also are in the midst of transitions which often leave historical
denominational strongholds abandoned in areas which are no longer fertile for the stronger
ministries we offer. Changing locations and re-tooling our ministries require tremendous investments
of analysis and adaptation. This comes at a time when the general population finds less interest in
mainline denominations. Nevertheless, we are beginning to address these challenges, and we thank
God for insight and direction.
We appreciate the 13th District for stepping out in new directions and allowing us to experiment with
innovative approaches to denominational ministry. While many of these initiatives are still maturing,
we are pleased with some of the initial results.
 Annual Conference and District meetings are shorter to accommodate economic realities and
those with secular employment.

We have minimized the receiving of offerings in District and Annual Conference meetings.
Supporting the work through reports from church has afforded greater Efficiency and
Accountability. It has also given us an opportunity to encourage the support of the local church.

Ministerial Training through a joint district effort has given clergy development a new, enriched
environment.

We have fostered greater cooperation among the respective components. We focused on young
adult and men’s ministry in addition to our well established missionary and lay endeavors.

We have conserved and made wise investments of available resources. We have been
accountable and transparent.
God bless the Thirteenth Episcopal District! We love you! God bless African Methodism as we
embrace our Incredible Future.
Jeffrey N. Leath
128th Bishop
Number of Conversions
1,585
Number of Baptisms
1,126
Number of Accessions
2,796
Total Members
12,387
Registered Voters
8,328
Total Churches
163
Total Pastors
159
Total Presiding Elders
8
Number of Annual Conferences
5
Total Number of Preachers
343
Number of Persons Ordained
34
General Budget Fund
$1,891,529
Lee Chapel AME Church, Nashville, Tennessee
Built new $3.8 million sanctuary
Rev. Roderick D. Belin, pastor
Thompson Chapel AME Church
Mission status
Kentucky Annual Conference
Rev. Avis Thompson, pastor
Kairos Community AME Church, Nashville, Tennessee
Purchased existing church, parsonage
and community life center,
Rev. Garrett Copeland, pastor
St. Paul AME Church, Memphis, Tennessee
Purchased new sanctuary
Rev. Linda Evans, pastor
13th District Necrology 2012-2016








Rev. Cecil Napier
Rev. B. R. Booker
Rev. Dr. James Walker
Rev. Dr. Cheryl Hoskins
Rev. Frank Buckley
Rev. Albert Brown
Rev. M. M. Cole
Rev. Obadiah K. Twiggs







Rev. James L. Rose
Rev. George L. Byrd
Rev. Menjou Miller
Rev. Doris Patton
Rev. Gloria Hall
Dr. Deborah T. Dennie
Rev. Iola Bridges Gardner
African Methodism has its beginnings in the organization of the Free African Society in 1787,
and in our official organization in 1816 under the auspices of our Founding Father, Bishop
Richard Allen. The roots of the Kentucky/Tennessee Episcopal District, currently the 13 th
Episcopal District, finds its beginnings in the ministry and legacy of the Bishop William Paul
Quinn.
As early as 1822 a debate arose in the Baltimore Annual Conference relative to the Western
Territories and the Annual Conference under whose jurisdiction they should be placed. The
record refers to it as "the country west of the Allegheny Mountains." On August 28, 1830, the
Western Annual Conference was organized at Hillsboro, Ohio, embracing all the territory west
of the Allegheny Mountains.
In 1833 the Reverend William Paul Quinn was transferred West, and began his great work west
of the Alleghenies. He became, in 1840, one of the founders of the Indiana Conference (whose
composition included, at that time, Ohio, Indiana and Illinois). That same year (1840), he was
given the oversight of, along with his other charges, all the circuits of the Indiana Conference, and
also appointed by the General Conference as the general missionary, to "plant the AME Church
in the far West." He was the first and the only person at this time chosen by a General
Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church to do general missionary work.
At the General Conference of 1844, Reverend Quinn reported such an amazing account of
growth and organization in the West, that the mantle of the Bishopric was thrust upon him.
Because of his great work, African Methodism continued its movement and growth West, and
Southward, into Kentucky, Tennessee and beyond.
In 1852, the General Conference ordered the division of the Indiana Conference because of
vastness and set aside the Missouri Conference embracing Illinois, Kentucky, Tennessee,
Mississippi, Louisiana, Alabama and Missouri. 13th Episcopal District is an outgrowth of the
Missouri Conference organized in 1844 by Bishop William Paul Quinn. The Missouri Annual
Conference was organized at Louisville, Kentucky in September of 1855, whose composition
included both Kentucky and Tennessee.
Again, due to such overwhelming growth, in 1868 the Missouri Conference was divided, and out
of that came the Kentucky Annual Conference and Tennessee Annual Conference (along with
others). Both Conferences, at this organization, encompassed their respective states.
The "increase" continued: In 1876 the Tennessee Conference was divided into the Tennessee
and West Tennessee Conferences. In 1880 the Kentucky Conference was divided into the
Kentucky and West Kentucky Conferences. And, finally, in 1900 the Tennessee Conference was
divided into the Tennessee and East Tennessee Conferences.
Also, after this last division, the Tennessee Conference was often referred to as the "Central"
Tennessee Conference.
Over the years the regions of Kentucky and Tennessee, and their respective Conferences, have
been reassigned to, and designated by, many different Episcopal District titles as the church has
grown and re-organized itself; and during our history, Kentucky and Tennessee have not always
been part of the same District: for example, at the 1872 General Conference, Kentucky was part
of the Third District, while Tennessee was part of the 6th District, and in 1876 Kentucky and
Tennessee were together again, along with other states, to make up the Third District.
At the 1920 General Conference, Kentucky and Tennessee made up the whole 14th District.
The mantle of "Thirteenth" was placed upon the regions of Kentucky and Tennessee at the 1936
General Conference, and it has remained so to this day as our history and legacy get brighter with
each new opportunity to worship and serve the Most High God and the Church of Allen!
(13th District History is paraphrased from documented historical statements of Rev. Robert Keesee and Rev. William RT Hale)
Tennessee Conference
Kentucky Conference
West Tennessee Conference
West Kentucky Conference
East Tennessee Conference
Kentucky Conference
West Kentucky Conference
East Tennessee Conference
West Tennessee Conference
Tennessee Conference
August 30, 1868
August 30, 1868
September 7, 1868
1880
October 30, 1900
St. Paul, Lexington
Quinn, Louisville
Warren, Chattanooga
Avery, Memphis
St. John, Nashville
St. Paul, Nashville
Quinn, Louisville
Avery, Memphis
St. Paul, Richmond
Warren, Chattanooga
Rt. Rev. Jeffrey N. Leath
Presiding Bishop
Susan J. Leath, MD
Supervisor, WMS
Dr. Richard A. Lewis
Treasurer/CFO AME Finance Dept.
Rev. Dr. Calvin H. Sydnor, III
Editor, The Christian Recorder
Dr. Paulette Coleman
Retired
Rev. Dennis Dickerson, PhD
Retired
Rev. Dr. Kenneth H. Hill
Retired
Sister Ora L. Easley
Administrator
Clergy Family
Information Center
Sister Gloria Ward
Administrator
Christian Debutante-Master
Sister Doris Bell
Asst. Recording Secretary
Lay Organization
Rev. Lee Russell Brown
Editor
RAYAC
Sister Lesa Halfacre
2nd Vice President
WMS
Brother Marcus Henderson
AME Trustee
Sister Andriette C. Bryant
WMS Commissioner
Disaster Relief/M.I.T.E.
Dr. Roberta Hill
Historian
Conn-M-SWAWO + Pk’s
Sister Billie Dixon Irving
Advisor to the President
Lay Organization
Sister Faye Walker
AME Trustee
Secretary
Brother Darwin Eldridge
Treasurer
Lay Organization
Brother Clay Holliday, Jr.
Secretary
RAYAC
Brother John Thomas, III
Advisor to the President
Lay Organization
Rev. C. Robert Finch
North Memphis District
Rev. Linda F. Thomas-Martin
South Memphis District
Rev. Dr. Terence L. Mayes, Sr.
Chattanooga District
Rev. Sidney F. Bryant
North Nashville District
South Nashville District
Rev. James E. Smith
Lexington District
Rev. Troy Merritt, Jr.
Nashville District
Rev. Dr. William W. Easley, Jr.
Louisville-Paducah District
Sister Gwen Dillihunt
WMS
Sister Angel Wilson
RAYAC
Sister LaTanya Germany
YPD Director
Rev. Randall Webster
Sons of Allen (SOA)
Dr. Roberta Hill
Christian Education
Sister Anjelica Jones
YPD President
Rev. Dr. Janie Dowdty-Dandridge Sister Dianna Golphin
MSWAWO
Women in Ministry (WIM)
Sister Fordie Franklin
Church Sunday School
Dr. Terence Mayes, Sr.
Evangelism
Sister Dorothy Ealy
Lay Organization
Sister Sherri’ Pointer
Christian Debutant-Masters
Commission (CDMC)
Brother Joseph Turner
Believe, Inc.
13th Episcopal District
African Methodist Episcopal Church
500 8th Ave South, Suite 201
Nashville, TN 37203
(615) 242-6814
[email protected]
www.ame13.org
Bishop Jeffrey N. Leath, Presiding Prelate