United Alumnus a Candidate for Bishop in the AME Zion Church

The Rev. Dr. Lester A. McCorn is a candidate for Bishop in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. The AME Zion Church will elect bishops at the General Conference in 2016.

Dr. McCorn is a 2011 alumnus of United Theological Seminary and a mentor for the doctoral focus group Gardner C. Taylor Scholars in Prophetic Leadership, Social Justice and Political Action. Since 2008, he has served as senior pastor of Pennsylvania Avenue AME Zion Church of Baltimore, Maryland. He received a bachelor’s degree in religion and sociology from Morehouse College and master’s degrees from Yale University Divinity School and Chicago Theological Seminary. He began his doctoral studies at Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary and earned a Doctor of Ministry at United Theological Seminary as a Gardner C. Taylor scholar under the leadership of mentors Dr. H. Beecher Hicks, Jr. and Dr. Ivan D. Hicks. He has also received a Certificate in Community Building Strategies from the University of Baltimore.

Dr. McCorn is the author of Standing on Holy Common Ground: An Africentric Ministry Approach to Prophetic Community Engagement (MMGI Books, 2013). He is the former Director of Young Adult Ministries for the AME Zion denomination and currently serves as president of the Zion Development Corporation Inc. and the Zion MADE Institute, an accredited church-based school which grants degrees. He is also a principal of Community Churches for Community Development.

Dr. McCorn was selected as a fellow of the Rockefeller Foundation’s Next Generation Leadership Program and Leadership Greater Chicago. He is an inductee of the distinguished Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers of Morehouse College, and he is a proud member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity Inc., initiated at Morehouse College (Alpha Rho Chapter) in 1986.

Dr. Lester A. McCorn is married to Charlene M. McCorn, a native of Monroe, Georgia, and a life-long member of the AME Zion Church. Mrs. McCorn is a Baltimore County elementary school teacher and church psalmist/musical director. They are the proud parents of three children: William Elijah Benjamin, Maliaka (Mal-LIE-ah-kah) Kenyetta, and John-Charles Wesley. The McCorns reside in Ellicott City, Maryland.