Dr. Gerald L. Durley MA, MDIV, PHD

Advisory Team

Dr. Gerald L. Durley was born in Wichita, Kansas. He grew up in California and graduated from high school in Denver, Colorado. Being endowed with exceptional basketball skills and a deep interest in improving the civil and human rights of African Americans, Dr. Durley chose to leave the west and venture south to Tennessee State University in Nashville, Tennessee.

While earning a Bachelor of Science Degree in Psychology, playing on a championship basketball team, and serving as student government president, he became very active in the civil rights movement. After graduating, Dr. Durley became one of the first Peace Corp volunteers to enter Nigeria, West Africa. From Africa he ventured to Switzerland where he enrolled in postgraduate studies at the University of Neuchantel. While there, he was invited to play for one of the Swiss National basketball teams.

When he returned to the United States, Dr. Durley enrolled in Northern Illinois University where he again became intensely involved in the struggle for human dignity, and earned one of the first Masters Degrees in Community Mental Health. He earned a Doctorate Degree in Urban Education and Psychology from University of Massachusetts and a Master of Divinity Degree from Howard University.



Dr. Durley currently serves as Pastor of Providence Missionary Baptist Church and is a highly sought speaker on civil and human rights issues. He and his wife, Muriel, have 2 children and 4 grandchildren.

Bishop Thomas Louis Brown MDIV, THD

Advisory Team

Bishop Thomas Louis Brown, Sr. was elected the 54th Bishop of the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church on June 28, 2006 in Memphis, Tennessee. Bishop Brown was born June 21, 1951 in Oakland, MS, the eighth child of Stephen and Lillie H. Brown. His elementary and secondary education was attained at Walker High School in Oakland, MS from which he graduated valedictorian of his high school class. He attended Northwest Junior College, Senatobia, MS, and earned the Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Mississippi (Ole Miss) in 1973. 

He matriculated at the Phillips School of Theology at the Interdenominational Theological Center, Atlanta, Georgia, from which he earned the Master of Divinity degree, with honors, in 1976. Bishop Brown also earned, with honors, the Doctor of Theology degree from the Interdenominational Theological Center (ITC) in cooperation with Candler School of Theology/Emory University and Columbia Seminary in 1991. He is a member of Theta Phi Honor Society. The ministry of Thomas Louis Brown, Sr. began during his junior year at Ole Miss when he answered the call to Christian Ministry. In the fall of 1973, he was admitted on trial in the MS Annual Conference by Bishop Joseph A. Johnson, Jr. and was assigned to pastor Rice Chapel in Durant, MS. In 1975 and 1976 respectively, Bishop Joseph C. Coles Jr. ordained him Deacon and Elder and admitted him into Full Connection in the Georgia Annual Conference. Bishop Brown’s itinerant ministry in the C.M.E. Church has been extensive and thorough. In addition to serving Rice Chapel Church, he served Murray Memorial Church, Covington, GA; St. James Church, Columbus, GA; Butler Street Church, Atlanta, GA; and College Park Church, College Park, GA. He was the organizing pastor of the Good News Community Church in Lithonia, GA. From June 1990 until July 2006, Bishop Brown served with distinction as the sixth President/Dean of the Phillips School of Theology at the ITC. During his tenure, more than ninety-five students graduated. In 1996, it was under his leadership that the Annual C.M.E. Pastors’ Conference was established.

The 54th Bishop has served as adjunct professor of CME History and Polity as well as pastoral care at ITC; lectured at Candler School of Theology, (Emory University) and Columbia Theological Seminary, and Princeton Theological Seminary; and was a regular teacher and preacher with the Institute of Church Administration and Management (ICAM) now known as Conference of National Black Churches. Moreover, Bishop Brown has represented the church exceptionally well. He has been a delegate to the General Conference of the CME Church from 1978 to 2006; and was a delegate to the World Methodist Conference in Nairobi, Kenya, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil and Durban, South Africa. His international travels have also included Nigeria, West Africa. He is a founding member of Concerned Black Clergy of Atlanta, an advocate for the homeless and persons on death row. Civic participation includes the NAACP and other community organizations. The accomplishments of Bishop Brown’s 12 year tenure in the Fourth Episcopal District included the moving of the episcopal residence/office from Shreveport, LA to Jackson, MS; the purchase of a new episcopal residence and an episcopal district office for a total of over $750,000.The mortgages on these properties were liquated prior to the 2018 General Conference.

Bishop Brown is married to Dr. Louise Baker-Brown. They are the parents of Charisa Nicole Brown-Jefferson and Thomas, Jr. and he is the grandfather to Ariel Moriah, Kingston Albert and Alana Joel Jefferson, Orlando Thomas Brown, Tyson Louis Brown and Judah Elijah Brown. Upon his election, the 2006 General Conference assigned him to the Fourth Episcopal District which encompasses the states of Louisiana and Mississippi. He is the Chair of the College of Bishops (2019-2020); Chair of the Department of Christian Education, a member of Trustee Board, Interdenominational Theological Center & Phillips School of Theology; Vice-Chair, Conference of National Black Churches (CNBC), and Vice-Chair, Board of Trustees, Paine College, Augusta, Georgia. In June 2018, Bishop Brown was assigned bishop of the Sixth Episcopal District, the State of Georgia.