Black Bishop Takes Helm Of Methodist Church

Bishop Hoyt is a distinguished scholar in theological education. His academic training is both thorough and extensive. Bishop Hoyt earned the BA degree from Lane College, Jackson, TN in 1962, the M.Div. degree from Phillips School of Theology of The Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, GA, the S.T.M. degree from the Union Theological Seminary in New York in 1967, and the Ph.D. degree from Duke University, Durham, NC in 1975. He was awarded the Doctor of Divinity degree from Trinity College in 1994. His ministry included pastoral service of several CME churches in North Carolina and New York and more than twenty years as a professor of theology. He has served as Assistant Professor of New Testament at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta, GA, the School of Religion at Howard University in Washington, D.C., and Professor of New Testament and Director, Black Ministries Certificate Program at Hartford Seminary in Hartford, CT. Bishop Hoyt's most renown lectures were the Lyman Beecher Lectures at Yale Divinity School in 1993, one of the oldest and most prestigious lectureships in the academic community.

Bishop Hoyt has written more than thirty-five articles for professional journals and publications, and has shared in group projects that resulted in published books, including the influential Stony the Road We Trod: An African American Biblical Interpretation Ed. by Cain Hope Felder (Minneapolis: Fortress Press, 1992).

President Hoyt served as the president of the National Council of Churches from 2004-2005. Awards and honors bestowed on Bishop Hoyt are numerous, including a visit to Pope John Paul II with a delegation from the National Council of Churches, delegate to the World Council of Churches in Porto, Alegre, Brazil in 1987, and CME representative at the World Council of Churches meeting on Faith and Order at Santiago De Compstela, Spain in 1993.

Upon his election to the Episcopacy, Bishop Hoyt was assigned to the Fourth Episcopal District. Bishop Hoyt was assigned to the Seventh Episcopal District at the 2006 General Conference. He is the Chair of the Department of Finance of the CME Church. Bishop Hoyt served as the Chair of the Department of Lay Ministry for twelve years, and the 125th CME Church Anniversary Celebration Committee.

Bishop Hoyt is married to Ocie (nee Oden) Hoyt, and is the father of two children, Doria and Thomas III. His office and headquarters are in Washington, DC.

The Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, under the leadership of Senior Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr. and its College of Bishops, is a 139-year old historically African American Christian denomination with more than 1.2 million members across the United States, and has missions and sister churches in Haiti, Jamaica, Ghana, Liberia, Nigeria and the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Sudan/Egypt, Kenya, Tanzania, Uganda Rwanda and Burundi. For additional information about the CME Church, visit www.c-m-e.org.

Senior Bishop Thomas L. Hoyt, Jr., CEO
Bishop Paul A. G. Stewart, Sr. 
Bishop Lawrence L. Reddick, III
Bishop Henry M. Williamson, Sr.
Bishop Thomas L. Brown, Sr.
Bishop Kenneth W. Carter
Bishop James B. Walker
Bishop W.E. Lockett
Bishop Sylvester Williams
Bishop Teresa Snorton
Bishop Godwin T. Umoette
Bishop William H. Graves, Retired
Bishop Othal H. Lakey, Retired
Bishop Edward Lynn Brown, Retired
Bishop Ronald M. Cunningham, Retired
Bishop Dotcy I. Isom, Jr., Retired
Bishop Marshall Gilmore, Retired
Bishop Nathaniel Linsey, Retired