Key points:
- Lee led the Holston Conference from 1988 to 1996.
- Some of his sermons in his years as a pastor in Mississippi gained national attention during the Civil Rights Movement.
- His colleagues touted “his storytelling, quick wit, deep friendships and strong work ethic.”
Bishop Clay Foster Lee Jr., who preached well into his 80s, died Nov. 11 at age 94.
Lee was elected bishop by the Southeastern Jurisdictional Conference in July 1988. He led the Holston Conference, which encompasses eastern Tennessee, southwestern Virginia and part of northern Georgia, until his retirement in 1996.
But before his time as bishop, some of his sermons in his years as a pastor gained national attention during the Civil Rights Movement.
In 1964, as a 34-year-old pastor, he was assigned to First Methodist Church in Philadelphia, Mississippi. It was during that time that three civil rights workers — James Chaney, Andrew Goodman and Michael Schwerner — were kidnapped and murdered.
The sermon he preached on Dec. 6, 1964, “Herod Was in Christmas,” spoke to the presence of evil among good. He used several verses from Matthew 2, which recounts Herod’s intention to kill the baby Jesus.
Lee associated Herod with bigotry and intolerance — traits he saw affecting otherwise decent white people in Philadelphia.
That sermon gained the attention of reporters from New York, Baltimore and Los Angeles. Two days before his Sunday sermon, the FBI arrested 19 suspects in the murders — most of whom were tied to the Ku Klux Klan.
Florence Mars, a member of the congregation, wrote of Lee and the sermon he preached that day in the 1977 book “Witness in Philadelphia.”
“Bishop Clay Foster Lee Jr. was a towering figure as both pastor and bishop. He inspired through his storytelling, quick wit, deep friendships and strong work ethic,” said Bishop Connie Mitchell Shelton, a fellow Mississippian who leads the North Carolina Conference.
“Bishop Lee’s resonant voice in preaching and singing stirred hearts and minds toward God,” she said.
In 2011, Lee presided over a church trial to determine if the Rev. Amy DeLong violated the denomination’s then bans on “self-avowed practicing” gay clergy and officiating at a same-sex union.
Retired Bishop Lee opened the proceedings by reminding everyone that they were gathered not as a civil court but as the church.
“Being the church,” he said, “we are called to a higher standard.”
Lee was born in Laurel, Mississippi, on March 3, 1930, to Clay F. and Margaret Wilson Lee.
He earned his bachelor’s degree from United Methodist-related Millsaps College in Jackson, Mississippi, in 1951 and his Bachelor of Divinity degree from Emory University’s Candler School of Theology, a United Methodist seminary, in 1953. He was awarded the Doctorate of Divinity by Millsaps College in 1985 and the Doctor of Letters degree by Tennessee Wesleyan College in 1990.
He preached his first sermon on Nov. 4, 1949, and continued to do so well into his 80s, long after his retirement, according to the United Methodist Council on Bishops.
While a pastor at Galloway Memorial Methodist Church in Jackson, he led the church into a contract with a local television station to broadcast the Sunday morning service.
Some of his sermons were included in “The Protestant Hour,” now known as Day1.
In 1987, Abingdon Press, an imprint of the United Methodist Publishing House, published “Jesus Never Said Everyone Was Lovable, Lessons in Discipleship,” a collection of his sermons from “The Protestant Hour.”
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Following positions as executive director of the Mississippi Conference Council on Ministries and superintendent of the Brookhaven District in 1976, he was appointed senior pastor at Galloway Memorial. While the church’s senior pastor, he was elected bishop.
His colleagues at the United Methodist Council of Bishops remember his “strong leadership and wisdom as a pastor and a bishop and his unwavering faith.”
He is preceded in death by his wife of 66 years, Dorothy S. Lee; his parents, and one sister, Margaret L. Ferrell.
He is survived by his five children: Cissy Lee of Jackson, Mississippi; Jack (Nancy) Lee of Raymond, Mississippi; Lisa (Andy) Mullins of Oxford, Mississippi; and Tim (Susan) Lee and Kaye (Peter) Bernheim of Gulfport, Mississippi.
He is also remembered by his eight grandchildren and eight great-grandchildren.
A memorial was held on Nov. 15 at Galloway Memorial United Methodist Church. In lieu of flowers, the family requests that remembrances be sent to Methodist Senior Services, P.O. Box 1567, Tupelo, MS 38802-1567.
Gilbert is a freelance reporter in Nashville, Tenn. News media contact: Julie Dwyer at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umnews.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free daily or weekly Digests.
