Bishop's Corner
Biography of Bishop C. Garnett Henning, Sr.
Bishop C. Garnett Henning
Minister, Visionary and Activist
Since the late 70s, the Rt. Rev. C. Garnett Henning's vision, ministry and leadership have been respected on the North American and African continents.
Highly regarded among clergy persons, elected officials and activists, as a young minister his passionate and effective Christian advocacy in Los Angeles and St. Louis were instrumental in winning battles against discrimination in both cities. His advocacy for economic, social and political justice for Blacks and other minorities has been the hallmark of his ministry wherever he has served. He has been a forceful fighter in areas of police brutality, housing, quality education and employment.
From the mid to late 70s in Los Angeles, while Senior Shepherd of Ward AME, he served as Executive Vice President, President and Chairman of the Board of SCLC-West. He also served as a member of the city's Housing Authority for seven years and as president for two years.
In St. Louis, where he was Senior Minister of St. Paul AME, the Mother Church west of the Mississippi River, his distinctive leadership style and activism were beneficial for the poor and locked out. While living in St. Louis, he founded the Committee for Equal Justice, an organization that exposed corruption in the Bail Bond system and established an "Own Recognizance" program. The "On Recognizance" program provided leadership for the eventual establishment of the Pre-Trial Release Program which allowed qualified applicants to be released prior to trial without posting a financial bond.
Bishop Henning also founded the Black Clergy Coalition which gave valuable leadership to Black ecumenical cooperation, economic development and political empowerment. He served for several years as Chairperson of the Political Action Committee. Bishop Henning also founded the Superintendent Advisory Committee, a committee that interacted with the Superintendent of education on matters related to quality education for the people of St. Louis and particularly the African American community.
Bishop Henning served as Executive Director of Block Partnership a program that brought together the Inner City and Suburban Churches and other organizations in programs of partnership for empowerment. His congregation also participated in a summer exchange program with city and county churches called Parish Partners.
His abilities and contributions gained even wider recognition with his 1992 election as the 112th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and his assignment as Presiding Prelate of the 14th Episcopal District. The Fourteenth Episcopal District is in West Africa, and comprises Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, Sierra Leone and Cote I'voire.
While bishop serving in the Fourteenth District, despite the civil war which was being fought in Liberia, Bishop Henning established AME University, an institution which now has a student enrollment in excess of fifteen hundred students. He also established C. G. Henning, Jr. Memorial Institute, in Danane' Cote I'voire, a refugee area. The school continues until today.
In 1996 Bishop Henning took the helm of the denomination's 19th Episcopal District, South Africa. Since then, he has been a forceful leader among bishops and lay leaders in support of indigenous leadership in Africa. While in South Africa, he completely modernized the H. B. Senatle Headquarters Building's office operations and built and paid for the C. G. Henning, Snr. Wing, which was dedicated in 1998.
From 1996-2000 Bishop Henning served as Chairman of the church's Commission on Women and Ministry which provided a platform for his long time advocacy for the election of a woman to the Episcopacy. In 2000, while he was Chairperson of the Commission on Women in Ministry, Bishop Vashti McKenzie was elected and consecrated the first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
Bishop Henning speaks forcefully and freely of his vision for full empowerment of women in the life of the denomination. He believes the greatest calls one can receive is the call to empower others, particularly in self development.
In 1998 he funded an eight-member delegation of Women in Ministry to the United States, from South Africa, and provided them with opportunities for travel and preaching throughout the country. He ordained, assigned and promoted more women than any other bishop in the history of the 19th Episcopal District.
With his installation as President of the AME Council of Bishops in a June 22, 1999, Los Angeles service, his Afro-centric voice and presence have been increasingly seen as an even more important bridge to influence and power for members of Black America's oldest denomination (founded in Philadelphia in 1787).
Bishop Henning dedicated more than 20 parsonages and churches that were built or renovated under his administration and started more than 50 A.M.E. congregations in South Africa between 1996 and 2000.
Bishop Henning is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, a graduate of Booker T. Washington High School, Memphis, Tennessee, received his B. S. degree from Wilberforce University and the M. Div. degree from Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio. He also completed the course work for the D. Min degree at Eden Theological Seminary, Webster Groves, MO.
He has received numerous awards, honors and recognitions for civic, social, religious and political contributions to the communities where he served.
He was the presiding bishop of the Eighth Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal District (2000-2008) which includes the states of Mississippi and Louisiana. While serving the 8th District, Bishop Henning was very vocal about his views regarding the confederate flag that flies over Mississippi.
On Friday, July 11, 2008, Bishop C. Garnett Henning, Sr., was assigned by the 48th Session of the General Conference of the AME Church to the Third Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church which is composed of Ohio, Western Pennsylvania and West Virginia. As a graduate of Wilberforce University and Payne Seminary, he brings renewed emphasis on our educational institutions. As a community activist, we will be seeking ways for our communities to be strengthened spiritually, politically, socially and economically.