FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
July 15, 2021
Contact: Hashim Jabar OdoKhan EL
888-316-1148
AME Zion Bishop Canonized and Elevated
to Sainthood at 168th Commemoration Anniversary
Weekend Events Include
Internationally Known Author Anthony T. Browder
On September 20th 2019, Bishop John Jamison (J.J.)
Moore of the AME Zion Church became Saint Benyamin the Moor through canonization
in a surprise Benediction by his 8th generation grandson. Bishop
Moore was the 15th consecrated Bishop of the church and the founder
of the first AME Zion Church west of the Mississippi river (August 1st, 1852)
in San Francisco, California. He was sent there on assignment having proved
himself as a missionary of the church and as an itinerant preacher in
Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania.
In the early
1800s the AME Zion church broke off from the Methodist Episcopal Church as a
response to racist practices, and later became known as the “Freedom Church”. Its
illustrious membership includes Frederick Douglass, Sojourner Truth, Harriet
Tubman, and the Paul Robeson family.
Bishop Moore
founded multiple churches in California and founded the “first negro school on
Pacific coast”. After leaving San Francisco, Bishop Moore was raised to the
dignified position of Bishop in 1868 and was responsible for territory in North
Carolina areas. Bishop Moore was an integral figure in the early progress and
development of the AME Zion Church. He documented the church’s history in ’The
History of the AME Zion Church in America Founded in 1796 in the City of New
York’, published in 1884 in the Library of Congress.
While
ministering in San Francisco, Moore published a periodical called The Lunar
Visitor. It promoted civil rights and advocated developing institutions for
educational, social and political skills useful in working towards a full
participation in American society
On September
19th/20th, 2020 Rev Sharon Cheek (Senior Pastor at First
Church AME Zion in San Francisco) hosted a star-studded weekend of online
events to commemorate the 168th Anniversary. Events included
nationally and internationally known authors, Anthony T. Browder (From the
Browder File), Brian McGinty (Archy Lee’s Struggle for Freedom), H.A. Jabar
OdoKhan-EL (Becoming a Well-Made Man), Louisville, Kentucky’s Youngest elected
Metro Council Official- Jecorey Arthur, and others.
Bishop Moore
is the patriarch of a dynasty of clerics that continued in spiritual work for eight
generations and counting. The most well-known being Dr. Isaiah Henri Harrison
Moore, a founder and Dean of the College of Scriptures in Kentucky.
H.A. Jabar Odokhan
EL is a great grandson of Bishop Moore and was chosen by his elders to be the
Custodian of the family library. Jabar inherits the custodianship from Peggy
Slaughter of Louisville, Kentucky and Thelma M. Foster of Dayton, Ohio. H.A.
Jabar is the Premier (Prime Minister) of the Zionst Temple of 1875 ordained by
Bishop Moore in 1875 in Philadelphia County Pennsylvania for Orphans and
Widows.
You can find
out more about Bishop Moore’s legacy and his family at thezionchurch.org, thelunarvisitor.com,
and moorzion.com.
The AME Zion
Church has taken no official position on the surprise canonization. The
denomination will be holding the 51st Quadrennial Session General
Conference on July 29, 2021, in Atlanta, Georgia.
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