The Reverend Dr. Robert C. Wade

Greetings,
 
I aspire to the office of Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Church as the Lord may will through the voice of the church and since I feel led by the Holy Spirit. The living water of the Holy Spirit pours love into my heart for the church and inspires me to create a vision based on our historical pattern of a tradition of change. Rev. John Wesley, an Anglican Priest, convened the first Conference. Rev. Richard Allen participated in that historic 1784 meeting. Wesley did not want to create a breakaway church but wanted to change the traditional Episcopal church. When that body did not accept the changes to their tradition, the Methodist Church resulted. When white Methodists excluded Richard Allen from their tradition, he stepped out to create a new church, our beloved African Methodist Episcopal Church. We have always embraced a tradition of devotion to study and fellowship, tradition and change.
 
I devoted my future to the apostolic teaching and fellowship of the A.M.E. Church. I grew up in south Georgia, one of ten siblings in a poor family. The A.M.E. Church did not let my poverty impede my education. Our Morris Brown College conferred a B.A. degree on me. Our tradition changed again in 1958 when Turner Seminary joined the Interdenominational Theological Center, which conferred the M.Div. degree on me. The Lutheran Seminary in Philadelphia changed their tradition to reach out to educate people who were not Lutheran or German and conferred on me the Doctor of Ministry in Church Administration and Urban Ministry. These benchmarks on my path of devotion to learning must not stop that life long educational process. I expect to learn much more in the future. My personal journey of study and fellowship, tradition and change will continue.
 
I served thirty three years in parish ministry, eight years as Presiding Elder of the Camden-Trenton District, New Jersey Conference. Eight years as Secretary for the First Episcopal District’s Presiding Elders’ Council. I served in three Districts: The Eleventh (Florida-Bahamas), the Sixth (Georgia) and the First. I remain open to responsibilities of servant leadership as our united Christian traditions change and grow.
 
I served four years as President of the New Jersey Council of Churches, with sixteen Protestant Denominations with over three thousand congregations. The Council helped lead the successful repeal of the death penalty in New Jersey, a wonderful change and sign of growth in unity, holiness, inclusiveness and apostolic leadership.
 
My philosophy may find partial expression in two basic platform planks:
 
1.       Our tradition of change must encourage, enable and empower our colleges, universities and seminaries. Study and education remain keys to power in the real world. I want to lead us to achieve full academic accreditation of all our institutions of higher learning. No one wants to follow an ignorant preacher, teacher, corporation executive or politician. No one wants to wallow in the seductive ways of nostalgia and miss the opportunities of the future. We must hire and support the brightest and best administrators and educators and recruit the most capable boards of directors to serve our institutions of higher learning. We must support development plans. For example, Bishop Frederick Hilborn Talbot, as Presiding Prelate of the 6th Episcopal District and as Chairman of the Board of Trustees of Turner Seminary of the ITC, led the construction of a Turner Seminary building on the ITC campus. His group raised 2.8 million dollars to fund the construction. I happily followed him beyond the freshly cut ribbon on that day in 1987 when we marched into a great facility.
 
2.       Through our tradition of change we must rise to confront tomorrow’s challenges in today’s world. I want to help lead us into a period of discernment through which we study and learn the Christian faith not as a set of beliefs carved in stone but as a living journey based on the actions of a living God who came back from the future in the person of Jesus to set people out on a pilgrimage of hope. Led by Bishop Richard Allen, each A.M.E. church organized trained and educated Class Leaders who developed Class Meetings of people for study, fellowship, the breaking of bread, prayers and concerted action for change. Radical, effective changes in evangelism and social action came from our historic tradition of Class Leaders and Class Meetings.
 
My dearly beloved sisters and brothers, with your support, encouragement, enablement and empowerment, I want to work with other Bishops to find new ways to touch the hearts of neighbors old and new with the glad tidings of great joy, the Gospel of God that concerned Jesus Christ our Lord. I believe that through excellent institutions of higher learning and vibrant, inspiring Class Leaders and Class meetings, we can use our tradition to change the world through our beloved A.M.E. Church.     
 
Thanks for your kind attention, your prayers and your votes as I seek to serve our Lord Jesus Christ as a Bishop.

Campaign Scripture

This is a statement that can be trusted:
If anyone sets his heart on being a bishop, he desires something excellent.
I Timothy 3:1-2  (GWT)

Campaign Song - How Great is Our God

The splendor of a King, clothed in majesty
Let all the earth rejoice
All the earth rejoice

He wraps himself in Light, and darkness tries to hide
And trembles at His voice
Trembles at His voice

Refrain

How great is our God, sing with me
How great is our God, and all will see
How great, how great is our God

Words by Chris Tomlin

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