By Heather Hahn, United Methodist News Services
Retired United Methodist Bishop Edsel A. Ammons, who helped lead the church during the transitional time of integration, died Dec. 24 in Evanston, Ill., after a lengthy illness. He was 86.
Ammons was a professor at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary when he became one of the first African-American bishops elected to the episcopacy by the denomination’s North Central Jurisdiction in 1976. He served the Michigan Area until 1984. He then served as bishop of the West Ohio Area until his retirement in 1992.“He was a brilliant person,” said retired Bishop Melvin G. Talbert, a friend and colleague who lives in Nashville, Tenn. “He was a person of a strong faith and dedicated to the work and mission of the church. He also had a strong commitment for justice.”
Ammons became a bishop less than a decade after The United Methodist Church dissolved the Central Jurisdiction, officially ending the system of racially segregated church governance.
Retired Bishop Forrest C. Stith of Upper Marlboro, Md., pointed out that his friend had a difficult task as an African-American bishop in a predominantly white denomination, serving episcopal areas where the African-American presence was minimal.
“He had a lot of hurdles he had to make, and a lot of transitions he had to lead the church in, and he did that very effectively,” Stith said. “He did it primarily because he brought such a respect to his office in terms of his knowledge and intellect and his stature.”
Chicago upbringing
Ammons was born the son of noted jazz pianist Albert Ammons and his wife Lila, an occasional church organist, on Feb. 17, 1924, in Chicago. He spent much of his life in and around his hometown, attending grade school, high school and earning his bachelor degree at Roosevelt University in the Windy City.
After serving in World War II, he was initially ordained a deacon and elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church.
But he transferred into the Methodist Church’s Rock River (now Northern Illinois) Annual (regional) Conference in 1957. Stith said Ammons saw more opportunities for service and ministry within the Methodist Church.
That same year, Ammons completed his final year at Garrett Biblical (now Garrett-Evangelical) Theological Seminary in Evanston, Ill. He later earned a doctor of ministry at Chicago Theological Seminary in 1975. He also received honorary degrees from Westmar College, Albion College, Adrian College and Mount Union College.
As a new elder in the Methodist Church, Ammons was pastor of what is now Ingleside-Whitfield United Methodist Church in Chicago. He later became the director of urban ministry for the Rockford (Ill.) District, and then a member of his annual conference’s program staff.
In 1968, he joined the faculty of his alma mater Garrett as professor of church and urban society. There, he developed a program on the church and the black experience before joining the episcopacy.
Minister to all people
Ammons in his early days as bishop assured church members he would minister to all those in his area and promote the strength of the church’s pluralism.
“I can’t imagine a black bishop, on the basis of his own history of pain and denial of opportunity, not being terribly interested in the hurts and aspirations and the growth needs of all people,” he told the Michigan Christian Advocate in 1976. “I think in that sense, I may be able to make a somewhat unique contribution.”
