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Introducing Denver Episcopal
Area Resident Bishop
Warner H. Brown, Jr.
Bishop Brown was born and raised an only child in Baltimore, Maryland, the son
of Ida and Warner Brown. At the age of thirteen, while reading the New
Testament, he felt a call to serve. At first he did not see himself serving as a
pastor in a church; but he began preaching as a youth, and was encouraged to
continue doing so. He graduated from the University of Maryland with a B.A. in
Sociology in 1969. Then, at the urging of his pastor, he attended Wesley
Seminary, graduating in 1974. It was at Wesley, while serving as a student
intern, that the ordained ministry finally called with clarity.
In 1973 Warner was ordained a Deacon in the Baltimore Annual Conference,
transferred to the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference, and was appointed as
both pastor of a church and Director of Bethany House Ministries in Pittsburgh,
a social service ministry for two housing projects. He was next appointed Senior
Pastor at Warren United Methodist Church in Pittsburgh. While serving in
Pennsylvania, he was ordained an Elder in the Western Pennsylvania Conference of
the United Methodist Church. Then, in 1979, he answered a national search for an
associate conference staff position in the California-Nevada Conference, and
transferred there: he admits that upon leaving Pennsylvania, he “joyfully threw
the snow shovel in the trash.” Once in California, it was only six months later
that internal staff changes opened the door to his stepping up to serve as
Conference Council Director.
From this role of program and administrative oversight for the Conference,
Bishop Brown was appointed just four years later to the Superintendency of the
Golden Gate District, the richly diverse area around San Francisco. Then again
after only four years, he was given the charge of Taylor Memorial U.M.C. in
Oakland, California. As the congregation was experiencing a significant
turn-around, the Loma Prieta earthquake and subsequent fires assaulted the
Oakland community. Warner led the community’s ecumenical disaster response,
serving as chairperson of the Oakland Inter-religious Network.
Following a successful eleven-year pastorate in Oakland, Warner was given a new
challenge as Senior Pastor of the predominantly white First U.M.C. of
Bakersfield, California. Only two years into this pastorate, he was nominated
and endorsed by his conference for the episcopacy: at the Western Jurisdiction
Conference Sessions in Casper, Wyoming in July, he as elected on the 19th
ballot.
Throughout these years, Bishop Brown has been active in the social justice
ministries and programs of those communities and church connections where he has
been appointed. To list but a sampling: Volunteer Police Chaplain, Trustee of
the Glide Foundation, vice-chair of the Community Advisory Commission for
Alameda County Medical Center, member of the Governing Board of United Way for
Kern County, chair of the Board of Directors for the Bakersfield Homeless
Shelter, recipient of the 1996 Outstanding Leadership and Service Award or
Emergency Response Ministries, given by United Methodist Committee on Relief,
and a recipient of a 1998 Congressional Commendation from Congresswoman Barbara
Lee.
Bishop Brown’s Leadership in the church has been extensive: a delegate to
General Conference twice, a member of the General Commission on Religion and
Race, a faculty member for New DS/CCD training, a Harry Hoosier Member of and
twice the host for the Black Methodists for Church Renewal, chair of the Board
of Missions in California-Nevada as well as numerous other conference boards and
agencies, adjunct consultant to the Alban Institute, and a Wesley Seminary
Distinguished Alumni.
Bishop Brown is married to Minnie Jones Brown; their family includes Catina
Marie Harvin, Warner III and Calvin Brown.
Copyright (c) 2004
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