Nathaniel Linsey, a bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, didn't need to look any further than Scripture for the qualifications necessary to attain his position.
"The apostle Paul set out requirements for becoming a bishop in his first letter to Timothy, and Nathaniel fit them perfectly," said Odessa Hooker of Atlanta, a family friend.
"Nathaniel's character was above reproach. He was temperate and kind, never quarrelsome. He had a talent for teaching," she said. "He managed his church with the same gentleness and firmness he exercised in leading his family."
In 1978 he was elected bishop in the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, a denomination that numbers 876,000 members, and was assigned to lead the CME's District 7 headquartered in Washington, D.C. Four years later he was reassigned to the CME's District 9, requiring a move to Los Angeles.
Three years later he was assigned to District 10 and became the first CME bishop to take up residence in Africa, erecting a hospital and a Bible college there during his tenure.
"Dad and Mom spent eight years in Lagos, Nigeria, and enjoyed themselves enormously," said their son Wayne Linsey of Los Angeles. "His congregants called him Daddy and even made him a chief."
Eddie Fox of Nashville, Tenn., director of the World Methodist Communion, said he had worked with Bishop Linsey the past 25 years and traveled to nearly every continent with him. He called the bishop one of the icons of world Methodist evangelism. "For years he has committed himself to bring the world Methodist family together -- all 76 million of us in 138 countries," he said.
Winston Worrell of Norcross, director of the Methodist Evangelism Institute at Emory University, said the bishop related easily with people of different cultures through all his travels abroad. "Bishop Linsey also was a very caring leader," he said, "always ready to help pastors serving under him. He was a father figure to many in the ministry."
In 1994 Bishop Linsey was assigned to CME District 2, bringing him back to the U.S. to Cincinnati. That same year he became the CME's senior bishop, in effect the denomination's chief executive. From 1994 until he retired in 2002, he was listed among the 100 most influential African-Americans as chosen by Ebony magazine.
Bishop Nathaniel L. Linsey, 84, died May 18 at his Fayetteville residence of kidney failure. His funeral is scheduled for noon Saturday at West Mitchell Christian Methodist Episcopal Church, with interment to follow at Greenwood Cemetery. Murray Brothers Funeral Home is in charge of arrangements.
Born and reared in Atlanta, Bishop Linsey attended Booker T. Washington, where he was a classmate of Martin Luther King Jr. "In fact, the two of them were debating adversaries," Wayne Linsey said.
Upon graduation, his father went on to Paine College in Augusta and later served as pastor at churches in Birmingham, Knoxville and Charleston, S.C., among others.
As a seminarian preaching in Halifax, Va., he noticed a young woman calling out "Amen" during his sermon. As he told a CNN reporter during a 2001 interview marking his and Mrs. Linsey's 50th wedding anniversary, he said to himself that was the lady for him.
Eleven months later he and Mae C. Mills were married the day he received his divinity degree from Howard University's School of Theology.
While in Birmingham, he took an active role in the civil rights movement.
"Dad was a very modest man and didn't tell us children much about his role back then," Wayne Linsey said. "I didn't learn he was marching right behind Dr. King during the 1963 march on Birmingham until I saw a photograph of the event years later.
"The fact is," he went on, "Dad was a song leader during the march, and he was arrested and placed inside the same paddy wagon and initially the same cell as Dr. King. Dad was defiant and refused to identify himself to the police and even led a hunger strike of prisoners at the jail."
Survivors include his wife, Mae Linsey; a daughter, Angela Linsey-Jackson of Atlanta; two other sons, Nathaniel Linsey Jr. of Los Angeles and the Rev. Ricarldo Linsey of Atlanta; two brothers, Herbert Linsey and Wallace Linsey, both of Atlanta; and seven grandchildren.
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