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A UMNS Report
By Kathy L. Gilbert*
5:00 P.M. ET June 28, 2012
United Methodist Bishop Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly preaches during
an evening worship in College Park, Ga., in 2004. A UMNS file photo by
Mike DuBose.
View in Photo Gallery
Leontine Turpeau Current Kelly
is being remembered as a trailblazer, a spiritual mother, a bearer for
women of color in leadership and a gift to The United Methodist Church.
She died at age 92 on June 28.
Being elected as the first African-American woman bishop was just
part of her “audacious life,” said Bishop Judith Craig, who also was
elected a bishop in 1984 just hours after Kelly.
“She made a bold journey from the Southeastern Jurisdiction to the
Western Jurisdiction. It was as audacious as her whole life,” Craig
said. “She never ran from challenge or controversy, and she also stood
fast in her convictions.”
Retired Bishop Melvin Talbert, Nashville, Tenn., who served with
Kelly on the College of Bishops in the Western Jurisdiction, also
remembers her election to bishop as groundbreaking.
“I remember some of my colleague bishops in the Southeastern
Jurisdiction were adamantly opposed to her election,” he said. Kelly
was a member of the Virginia Annual (regional) Conference at the time.
“I was gratified she was elected,” he said.
Craig said she and Kelly would seek each other out in those early
days. There were only three women on the Council of Bishops at that
time. Marjorie Matthews was the first woman elected bishop in 1980.
After Matthews’ death, there were “just the two of us,” Craig said. “I
was very grateful for her presence. It made me realize how lonely
Marjorie must have been.”
"Bishop Leontine Kelly has been the spiritual mother of many
clergywomen and especially the women bishops,” said retired Bishop
Sharon Brown Christopher, Nashville, Tenn. “She called us into futures
we never anticipated for ourselves, would not let us capitulate to our
insecurities and druthers, and coaxed us into new lives that gave new
leadership to The United Methodist Church. Her feisty, God-centered
spirit is embedded deeply in our souls and will continue to form and
instruct us," she said.
Among Kelly’s many contributions to the denomination was as a
founding member of Africa University, the first United Methodist
university on the continent of Africa. Kelly was the presiding bishop
when the 1988 United Methodist General Conference approved the African
Initiative, which later became Africa University.
“She is one of those pillars, the foundation of Africa University,”
said James Salley, associate vice chancellor for institutional
advancement for Africa University. She gave money to endow two
scholarships at the university. Those scholarships have provided
education for many African women, Salley said.
Bishop Leontine Kelly (fourth from left) is pictured with her fellow 12
women bishops at a 2000 Council of Bishops’ meeting in St. Simons
Island, Ga. A UMNS file photo by J. David Miller.
View in Photo Gallery
“She was a gift to the church and a perfect example of what God can do when God has chosen an individual,” he said.
Larry R. Hygh Jr., associate general secretary and director of communications for the Board of Global Ministries, came to know the bishop as part of work he did toward a graduate degree.
“Her political party affiliation and personal opinions did not
overshadow her Christian witness in a poly-cultural world, with
seemingly limited worldviews,” Hygh said. “I hear her telling me about
leaders being authentic and sincere. ‘Leaders give of themselves,’ she
said. ‘Leaders take risks and are on the cutting edge.’”
Kelly’s daughter, Angella Current Felder, followed her mother’s
example by giving leadership to Africa University and women of color,
Salley said. Current Felder retired as director of the United Methodist
Office of Loans and Scholarships, Board of Higher Education and
Ministry, in 2010.
Kelly is also survived by two sons, Gloster B. and John David Current, and an adopted daughter, Pamela Lynne Kelly.
The funeral service for Kelly will begin at 10 a.m. PST on July 5 at
Jones Memorial United Methodist Church in San Francisco. Family Hour is
scheduled for July 4, 1 p.m. to 3 p.m., followed by visitation and
viewing from 4 p.m. to 8 p.m. Both will take place at Jones. The family
asks that contributions be made in lieu of flowers to:The Ila Marshall
Turpeau Scholarship Fund, Garrett Theological Seminary, 2121 Sheridan
Road, Evanston, Ill., 60201 or to the The Bishop Leontine T. C. Kelly
Endowed Scholarship Fund, Africa University Development Office, P. O. Box 340007, Nashville, Tenn., 37203-0007.
‘Inspiring and challenging’
Kelly grew up in The Methodist Church.
Her father, the Rev. David D. Turpeau, was a Methodist minister who
also served in the Ohio House of Representatives. Her mother, Ila
Marshall Turpeau, was an outspoken advocate for women and blacks, and
she founded the Urban League of Cincinnati.
Kelly took on the mantle of leadership when her second husband, the
Rev. James David Kelly, died. At his urging, she became a certified lay
speaker in Virginia. She enrolled in the Course of Study, attended
summer school at Wesley Theological Seminary and received her master of
divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1976. She was
ordained a deacon in 1972 and an elder in 1977.
“Bishop Kelly was inspiring and challenging at the same time. Her
forward-focused energy and her impatience with things that have
prevented the church (and we, its members) from living the active, holy
and fruitful lives we are called to have been a source of inspiration
to me,” said Harriett Olson, top executive for United Methodist Women.
Olson pointed out the extra burdens Kelly carried.
“She carried the extra burden of being among the ‘firsts’ as the
second elected woman and the first elected African American woman on
the Council of Bishops. I am personally grateful for all the ways
she ‘made a way’ for other women and persons of color to follow God’s
call on their lives. We have been blessed by her loving,
committed and energized witness. My first time to hear her preach was at
the 1988 General Conference. It was a high moment.”
“The first time I heard her preach, even though I was a Christian, I had a complete conversion experience all over again.” — M. Garlinda Burton
“Bishop Kelly was beloved, especially by laypersons in her local
churches who loved her commitment to strengthen and help local churches
grow their membership both in number and spiritually,” said Raúl B.
Alegría, treasurer of the Southeastern Jurisdiction. Kelly was bishop
in the California-Nevada Annual Conference when Alegría served as
conference treasurer from 1987 to 1994. “When persons disagreed with
Bishop Kelly, she found that moment as an opportunity to ‘love people
into goodness’ so that the issue at hand found common agreement on both
sides.”
M. Garlinda Burton, top executive for the United Methodist
Commission on the Status and Role of Women, agrees Kelly was a great
preacher.
“Bishop Kelly is one of the reasons I’m in leadership in the church
right now. She has been a standard-bearer for women of color in
leadership, and there will be no one like her, ever. She’s one of a
kind,” Burton said. “The first time I heard her preach, even though I
was a Christian, I had a complete conversion experience all over
again.”
“She will never leave us,” said Craig. “I am sure she died peacefully and at peace in the Lord. There is no question about her confidence she was in the presence of the one she served her whole life.”
*Gilbert is a multimedia reporter for the young adult content team at United Methodist Communications, Nashville, Tenn.
News media contact: Kathy L. Gilbert, Nashville, Tenn., (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org.
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