His Voice Was Strong
Former secretary remembers Bishop Allen
By Annette Bender
and United Methodist News Service
Bishop L. Scott Allen officiated at Bessie Madison's wedding. He baptized her baby daughter, and when Madison experienced marital difficulties, Bishop Allen sent her a book entitled "Muddling Through."
When Allen died on Sept. 18 at age 86, Madison was both surprised and sad. As the bishop's secretary during his service to Holston Conference from 1968 to 1976, Madison had stayed in touch with him throughout the years. When she last spoke with him in April, "his voice was strong," says Madison. "I didn't even know he was sick."
But Bishop Allen always had a strong voice, she remembers. Even if he was sick, his voice wouldn't give him away.
Allen, the last bishop elected in the former Methodist Church - now part of the United Methodist Church - died last month at Crawford Long Hospital in Atlanta of complications from pneumonia.
He was also the last bishop elected in the former Methodist Central Jurisdiction, a racially constituted entity created in the predominantly white church in 1939 but dissolved early in 1968. The Central Jurisdiction was eliminated as a condition for union between the Methodist and Evangelical United Brethren churches in April 1968. In the new United Methodist Church, Allen was reassigned to the Holston Conference in the predominantly white Southeastern Jurisdiction.
Bessie Madison was a 21-yearold secretary at United Methodist Publishing House in Nashville when she was offered the position as secretary to the new bishop in Knoxville, Tenn. A native of Verbena, Ala., Madison immediately relocated to Knoxville and has lived there ever since. She was a Baptist when she came to east Tennessee, but credits Bishop Allen for her conversion to Methodism.
"I saw how the church was organized and saw its many accomplishments in mission work," says the 30-year member of Lennon-Seney United Methodist Church. "I was impressed, really." Today, Madison is a librarian for a public utility company. She earned her master's degree in library science from the University of Tennessee in 1989. Madison took a day away from her job on Sept. 22 to attend Bishop Allen's memorial service at Hoosier Memorial United Methodist Church in Atlanta.
If she could describe Allen in three words, she says, those words would be "secure, confident and committed."
"He was secure in his faith," Madison said. "He was confident in his ability to lead. And he was committed to the church he loved so much."
Although Bishop Allen was a first for most Holston members - as the conference's first African-American episcopal leader - Madison said she didn't recall "any serious racial conflicts."
"I opened the mail, and I don't remember any hate mail," she says. "Bishop Allen was not the kind of man to look for any racial conflicts... If there was anything, he would have handled it and moved on."
A giant of a leader
Many United Methodist leaders have commented recently on Allen's character and impact on the church.
"He was a giant of a leader in our denomination," said North Georgia Bishop Lindsey Davis, one of several speakers at Allen's funeral service. "Even after he retired, he continued to have a wonderful impact on our church through his work at Gammon (Theological Seminary) and the way he mentored so many of the young pastors who were coming through Gammon."
Davis recalled visiting Allen, who had suffered from a number of illnesses in recent years, on Sept. 5. "He told me, 'Bishop, I'm ready to go on to the other side of the river.'"
A native of Meridian, Miss., Allen served as a pastor, editor and teacher before being elected a bishop by the Central Jurisdiction Aug. 18, 1967, and assigned to the Gulf Coast Area, including Central Alabama, Florida and Mississippi.
After serving Holston, he was assigned to the Charlotte (N.C.) Area in 1976, where he served until his retirement in 1984.
Only one other bishop remains who was elected in the former Methodist Central Jurisdiction: James S. Thomas of Atlanta.
Thomas recalled that his ministry paralleled Allen's. They became friends at Gammon in 1940, said Thomas, who was elected to the episcopacy in 1964.
"He had a very high conception of the church," Thomas said. "He loved the church, and that was why he was such a careful student of the Bible, of theology, and also of the Book of Discipline."
Thomas also recalled that from his earliest days, Allen was always impeccably dressed in his preacher's attire: dark suit, white tie and hat. "I knew him for 64 years, and I've never seen him in shirt sleeves."
"He really believed in the vision of the United Methodist Church; he really believed in unity after merger," said M. Garlinda Burton, interim top staff executive of the Commission on the Status and Role of Women in Evanston, Ill. Allen was a family friend and mentor to Burton and was her childhood bishop in two different annual conferences.
At the time of unity, a lot of people feared a loss of power for African Americans, Burton said. "He encouraged us to take our gifts into the larger church and to go in good faith. It was a scary time, but he believed in sharing those strengths."
Said Davis: "Having gone through all the experiences he did, and coming into being a bishop of the United Methodist Church in the late 1960s, he had an incredible gift for forgiveness and reconciliation."
Allen earned an undergraduate degree from Clark College and his bachelor of divinity degree from Gammon Theological Seminary, both in Atlanta, and his master of arts degree from Northwestern University in Evanston, Ill. He also had honorary degrees from several colleges. After his retirement he established a Center for Ministerial Exchange, Education and Training of a Ministry for Inclusiveness and Open Itinerancy at Gammon.
Ordained an elder in 1942, he served as pastor of several churches in Georgia before being named editor of the Central Christian Advocate, the fifth consecutive editor of the newspaper elected a bishop. One of his predecessors was Bishop Prince Albert Taylor Jr., who died in 2001.
Allen served on the governing boards of numerous United Methodist and ecumenical agencies. He served as president of the church's Commission on Religion and Race, Commission on Archives and History, and the World Division of the Board of Global Ministries. He was a member of the Constituting Convention of the National Council of Churches in 1950 and was active in the NAACP.
He is survived by his wife, the former Sara Adams, whom he married in 1942. Condolences may be sent to Mrs. Sara Allen, 1221 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive SW, Atlanta, GA 30314.
A scholarship fund for students attending Clark Atlanta University and Gammon Theological Seminary has been established in Bishop Allen's memory. For more information, contact Julia Edwards, Citizens Trust Bank, Westside Branch, 965 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, Atlanta, GA, telephone (404) 522-1792.
Annette Bender is editor of The Call. This story was also written by Tom McAnally, former director of United Methodist News Service, with quotes provided by Alice Smith, editor of the Wesleyan Christian Advocate newspaper,and Tim Tanton of UMNS.
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