Presiding Elder Lee Awarded at Winter Council

           On December 4, 2010, Presiding Elder Albert Lee, III received the Lucius H. Holsey Leadership Award and the Randall Carter Membership Award at the Bishop’s Winter Council at Warner Robins CME, Warner Robins, GA, where Rev. Lindsey Napier is pastor.
   The leadership award is in honor of Bishop Lucius Henry Holsey. As a leader of the denomination for the establishment of the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church in America, Holsey traveled and ministered throughout the southern states to recruit Georgia Black Methodists to join. Other congregations in Georgia were founded under his leadership. Holsey served as the secretary of the College of Bishops for over 20 years. He was also the statistician and the corresponding secretary for the denomination. Paine College in Augusta, GA, was the brainchild of Bishop Holsey.  He was first to express an idea for the college in 1869. In 1882, Bishop Holsey and other leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South and the Colored Methodist Episcopal Church founded Paine College. He also founded the Holsey Industrial Institute in Cordele, Georgia, and the Helen B. Cobb Institute for Girls in Barnesville, Georgia. (http://encyclopedia.jrank.org/articles/pages/4302/Holsey-Lucius-Henry-1842-1920.html)
    The membership award is in memory of Bishop Randall A. Carter who was born in Fort Valley, GA.  Before becoming Bishop, he was presiding elder in the Georgia Conference for 16 years. During his leadership, he is credited with leading the way for the purchase and building of over 250 churches that provided a haven for CME members and extended it bounds during the great migration of Afro-Americans from the South to the North after WWI (The Journal of Negro History © 1954). The awards denote that our district is represented and recognized with high esteem and honor under the leadership of Presiding Elder Albert Lee, III.
    Elder Lee was appointed presiding elder of the Elberton/Gainesville District in August of 1998. He provides leadership and guidance to 30 churches.
    As usual, Presiding Elder Lee reported round for all 30 churches on the district at the Bishop’s Winter Council.
                 Submitted by Lunita Mayfield and Hilda Stuckey.