A Service of Celebration to honor the new bishop and presiding prelate of the Piedmont district of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church will be at 5 p.m. Sunday, Sept. 16 at Varick Auditorium, Livingstone College.
Bishop George E. Battle Jr. led the historic church as the senior bishop during the 49th quadrennial session of the general conference in Charlotte in July.
The Piedmont district includes the cities of Charlotte, Winston-Salem, Gastonia, Salisbury, Concord, Greensboro, Statesville and Asheville. The district is the largest district of the AME Zion Church and includes Jamaica and East and West Angola.
Battle is a native of Rocky Mount and is the 84th bishop in the line of succession. He becomes the second bishop in the history of the denomination named to this leadership position in the 21st century.
Battle is known for his leadership in education as a former chairman of the Charlotte Mecklenburg School Board. He is a member of the board of directors for Carolina Health Care, Central Piedmont Community College and the Billy Graham Evangelistic ASsociation. He also served as a North Carolina delegrate for the National Democratic Convetion.
Battle was educated at Clinton Junior College in Rock HIll, S.C. and Living stone College. He holds a master of divinity degree from Hood Theological Seminary. He earned a doctor of ministry degree from Howard University in Washington, D.C.
He is married to Iris Miller Battle and together they have two children, George III and LaChandra, as well as four grandchildren: Trey, Alex, Peyton and Elias.
Iris Battle is the dean of supervisors of the AME Zion Church and will lead the Missionaries of the Piedmont.
For more about this event, contac the Rev. Dr. Grant Harrison Jr., pastor of Soldiers Memorial AME Zion Church, at 704-467-2064.
?Also present at the 5 p.m. ceremony will be Mayor Paul Woodson; Dr. Leonard H. Bolick, Bishop and president of the NC Lutheran Synod; Dr. Albert Aymer, president of Hood Theological Seminary; and Dr. Jimmy R. Jenkins Sr., president of Livingstone College.