There will be four new Bishops elected tomorrow at the 46 General Conference of the African Methodist Episcopal Church being held at Albert B. Sabin Convention Center in Cincinnati, Ohio
Coming into Monday there were three known slots available. Bishop Harold Ben Senatle and Bishop Robert Thomas both retired and Bishop Vernon R. Byrd requested to be located for health reasons.
Saturday, the Episcopal Committee, that has the responsibility of determining the character of Bishops, setting their retirement date and placing the Bishops in the various Episcopal Districts, brought their report of two retirements and one location before the General Conference.
During heated debate, it was suggested that there may be other Bishops who should retire at this General Conference. The Episcopal Committee was sent back out with the directive of restudying the issue.
All morning long, the return of the Episcopal Committee was eagerly awaited. There could be no elections held until it was determined how many Bishop slots were open.
When the Episcopal committee returned to the Conference floor, their report had been modified from its Saturday form. This time there still were two retirements, but now there also were two locations. Bishop Hamel Hartford Brookins also asked to be located for health reasons.
The Episcopal Committee brought legal counsel with them in the person of Richard Singfield. Singfield suggested that some of the wording in the Discipline was vague in regards to the retirement of Bishops. He said the only thing that was really clear was you have to retire at 75 years of age.
His explaination complete, the committee announced there would be four Bishops to be elected at the 46th Annual Conference.
The General Conference did not seem to be in agreement with Bishop Brookins being located. When the motion was made to locate him, and the vote was called, a loud chant of "no,no, no" reverberated through the Convention Center.
The negative vote sent the Episcopal Committee back to the drawing board one more time. One delegate took the floor and asked the Bishops to do the right thing before calling for the retirement of Bishop Belin, Bishop Anderson and Bishop Brookins.
This all happened at noon,or slight before that hour, the Episcopal Committee did not make its next public appearance until 9:45 p.m.
The Episcopal Committee marched in two-by-two and the entire Convention Center quieted in anticipation of the committees pronouncement in regards to the Bishop situation.
This time the number of Bishop slots remained the same, four, but instead of being located, Bishop Brookins was pronounced to be retired.
Then things really went crazy. People were yelling and screaming at one another and at one juncture, it appeared the battle could get physical.
Bishop Brookins himself stood behind he podium and gave an impassioned plea that the General Conference not treat him so badly after his many years of service to the church. "My heart cries out that the General Conference would come up and do this to me. You know very well that this is not right.
"There are other people here," Bishop Brookins said gesturing to the other gathered Bishops, "Who are as old as I am or older."
Bishop Haskell Mayo, who was a victim of imposed retired at the last General Conference said, "You put me out. You put me out and I went home broken hearted."
The noise was deafening and many of the verbal attacks became personal as supporters of Bishop Brookins slugged it out with his detractors. It got so loud and tumultuous that someone went to the microphone and began singing "We Shall Over Come" in hopes of quieting the crowd. The calm was short-lived. It ended as soon as the song did.
Then someone called for the removal of the press from the building. Bishop Robert Vaughn Webster who presided during this time of creative chaos, first issued the order to remove the press from the building and then rescinded the mandate when calmer heads reminded him that he would receive far worse publiciy by removing the press from he building then he would allowing them to chronicle the procedings.
"The press has already seen us at our worse, solet them see us at our best," Bishop Webster said.
The yelling and screaming continued for a bit longer but out of the confusion came a motion that would allow Bishop Brookins to locate rather than retire.
If located, a Bishop receives full salary and benefits. If retired he receives half his salary.
It was a tight vote but the Bishop Brookin's forces prevailed and the Bishop no longer was retired, he was located by a 832 to 826 vote.
It is expected that voting will begin at 2 p.m. Tuesday and there will be four slots ready to be filled.
