We Celebrated Ebenezer's 174th Anniversary in 2010 with

Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie

First Woman Bishop in the AME Church

Bishop Vashti McKenzie is a woman of firsts. She was the first woman to pastor at Payne Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church in Baltimore, Maryland. On July 11, 2000, the AME Church elected her its first female bishop in its 213-year history. The AME Church will never be the same.

Bishop McKenzie attended Howard University, in Washington, DC, and received a Master of Divinity degree. She then went on to earn the Doctor of Ministry degree from Union Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio. In 1984 she was ordained a deacon and assigned to a seven-member congregation in Chesapeake City, Maryland. After one year she was fully ordained and appointed the pastor of Oak Street AME Church in midtown Baltimore. After a few short years, Dr. McKenzie was selected as pastor of Payne Memorial AME Church, becoming the first woman pastor in that congregation's 102-year history.

Bishop McKenzie is the author of four books. She is serving her second term as the presiding prelate of the 13th Episcopal district of the AME Church.