Posted on Wed, Apr. 26, 2006

email this

print this

3 Questions With

The new president of the AME Global Council of Bishops

The Right Rev. Preston Warren Williams II on Wednesday was named president of the 21-member global Council of Bishops, a position that will take him to churches worldwide.

The announcement was made Tuesday at a news conference that drew Gov. Mark Sanford, Columbia Mayor Bob Coble and more than a dozen other dignitaries and church leaders.

Williams will continue in his roles as spiritual leader of the 400,000-member African Methodist Episcopal Church in South Carolina and chairman of the Allen University Board of Trustees.

We asked Williams three questions about his new position.

Q: When will you be installed?

A: The global Council of Bishops will meet in Charleston in June.

Q: How do you envision the work of the AME church in the world?

A: The church is going to be in the middle of it, just as Christ has always been in the middle of the hurt of his people.

Education needs a new beginning. South Carolina is almost the last among the states. Health issues are atrocious. Race relations are tenuous at best.

Q: What is your role in your new position?

A: They have given me a mandate (to) bring about effective bodies of leaders. It must include an inclusive group that will take in all people. We are a multi-ethnic movement.

— Carolyn Click