Key points:
- Bishop Violet L. Fisher made history as the first Black woman elected bishop in The United Methodist Church’s Northeastern Jurisdiction.
- Fisher, who began her ministry in the Pentecostal tradition, earned admiration across the denomination for her powerful preaching and tender pastoral care.
- Fellow United Methodists remember the bishop, who died Nov. 17 at the age of 86, for charting a path for others church leaders and tirelessly traveling to share the faith.
Friends say Bishop Violet L. Fisher never hesitated to go where she felt the Holy Spirit was leading — even down paths others feared to tread.
Retired Bishop Susan M. Morrison recalled that when Fisher was still a relatively new United Methodist pastor in the late 1980s, she reached out to Morrison — then a new bishop — to ask for help in comforting a pastor dying of AIDS.
“I said, ‘Of course,’ and I went and visited him,” Morrison recounted. “But it was in the days when AIDS was not talked about a lot and not understood a lot. That stayed with me because she had reached out across several boundaries to fulfill her commitment to pastoral care.”
Morrison was so impressed that she soon named Fisher as a district superintendent in the Eastern Pennsylvania Conference. In that role, Fisher served on the cabinet that advises the bishop and became widely known for her leadership skills.
Fisher had just stepped down as the conference’s cabinet dean when she made history in 2000 as the first Black woman elected a bishop in the denomination’s Northeastern Jurisdiction that extends from Maine to West Virginia.
The trailblazing bishop, called Vi by her friends, led what were then the Western New York and North Central New York conferences until her retirement in 2008. She died Nov. 17 at Homestead Manor in Denton, Maryland, on the state’s Eastern Shore. She was 86.
Fellow United Methodists remember Fisher not only as a caring pastor but also a powerful preacher and trusted mentor who charted a path for other church leaders.
“Bishop Violet Fisher was a pioneer whose ministry broke barriers and built bridges,” said Council of Bishops President Tracy S. Malone in a statement. Malone, who also leads the Indiana Conference, is herself the first Black woman to be the bishops’ president.
“Her unwavering faith, prophetic voice and deep compassion left an indelible mark on our church and on all who were blessed to walk alongside her. We give thanks for her life and legacy.”
Bishop Thomas Bickerton, a former Council of Bishops president and fellow Northeastern Jurisdiction bishop, said Fisher retained her enthusiasm for God’s call throughout her life.
“Never shying away from an opportunity to preach, pray or motivate someone, Bishop Fisher tirelessly traveled the connection with a hope-filled, Spirit-led message of grace and transformation,” said Bickerton, who leads the New York and New England conferences.
“Her ministry reached many as she not only effectively moved within the circles of our United Methodist Church, but also beyond the church to anyone she encountered.”
Retired Bishop Peggy A. Johnson, who led the Eastern Pennsylvania and Peninsula-Delaware conferences when Fisher was newly retired, counted Fisher as both a friend and mentor.
“She was an amazing preaching ‘machine,’” Johnson said. “She preached everywhere up and down the peninsula — big churches, small churches, homecoming services, women’s day — bringing her powerful presence and Holy Spirit inspiration.”
She also embraced a risk-taking faith, Johnson said. She traveled 26 times to the Holy Land, where she preached and helped guide people’s pilgrimage. She gave generously to anyone who asked. For her 70th birthday, she even did a bungee jump.
“It was how she lived her life,” Johnson said, “fully abandoned to God and God’s will.”
Morrison, who in 1988 became the first woman elected bishop in the Northeastern Jurisdiction, ordained Fisher as a United Methodist elder in 1990 and eventually became great friends with her fellow trailblazer. What struck Morrison most was Fisher’s tenderness toward people from all walks of life.
Morrison said when Fisher was on the cabinet, fellow superintendents would gently tease her because whenever she heard of someone in trouble, her first response was to utter a very sympathetic “Poor baby.”
“She led with her heart,” Morrison said. “She understood the journey of people, and she was very present with them — including me, as well as others.”
For her part, Fisher identified as someone who was open to the Holy Spirit molding and shaping her into a leader who could call forth other leaders.
She shared that description of herself with Larry Hygh, a lifelong United Methodist and now communications professor at California State University, Dominguez Hills. Hygh featured Fisher as part of his dissertation on the leadership styles of the first four African American women elected United Methodist bishops.
To make disciples of Jesus Christ, Fisher told Hygh, United Methodists need to understand what she called “body ministry” — that all Christians are part of the body of Christ, that all are called to some kind of leadership role and that no one role is more significant than the others.
“That’s quite naturally what Paul talks about in Corinthians — the value of all members of the body,” she told Hygh. “And so, my gift as a leader has been to help folks to hear the call … to free people up through my preaching, my exhort and my teaching to be who God has called them to be.”
Learn more
The Council of Bishops offers more tributes to Bishop Violet L. Fisher.
Fisher came to ordained United Methodist ministry in her late 40s, already with an abundance of leadership skills and experience.
She was born into a Methodist family on Aug. 28, 1939, in Easton on Maryland’s Eastern Shore — about 25 miles from where she died.
She told Hygh that she became a born-again believer at age 11, felt called to preach at 14 and delivered her first sermon at 16. But she experienced her call at a time when ordained ministry was largely inaccessible to women — especially in what was then the Delaware Conference in the segregated Central Jurisdiction.
So, she began her career as a teacher after earning a bachelor’s degree from Bowie State University in Maryland and a master’s degree in education from George Washington University in D.C. She taught in public schools in Virginia and Maryland for 22 years.
At age 25, she also received ordination in what is now the King’s Apostle Church World Ministries. She served the denomination, part of the Pentecostal tradition, as a national evangelist and as a short-term missionary in East Africa, Haiti and Jamaica.
She ultimately felt called to return to what is now The United Methodist Church, where women finally could receive full clergy rights, and the segregation of Black members was no longer church policy.
Fisher earned her Master of Divinity from Eastern Baptist Seminary in Philadelphia in 1988. She took her first formal step toward ordination that same year under the late Bishop F. Herbert Skeete before being ordained an elder two years later by Morrison.
She served as associate pastor of St. Daniels United Methodist Church in Chester, Pennsylvania, and senior pastor at Sayers Memorial United Methodist Church in Philadelphia before her appointment as district superintendent. She served as dean of the Northeastern Jurisdiction of Evangelism from 1998 to 1999.
The Eastern Pennsylvania Conference also elected her in 1996 and 2000 as a delegate to General Conference, the denomination’s top lawmaking assembly, as well as those years’ Northeastern Jurisdictional conferences.
Hygh first met Fisher and heard her preach at the 2000 national gathering of Black Methodists for Church Renewal — months before her election as bishop.
“She was small in stature, but her preaching was Spirit-filled, anointed and on fire,” Hygh said. “She preached God’s word with authority, uplifting all of God’s children and calling forth the best in us.”
Fisher preached at multiple Black Methodists for Church Renewal gatherings.
“Bishop Fisher’s warmth, joy and genuine love for God’s people filled every space she entered,” said Deborah E. Bass, the caucus’ chair on behalf of its board. “Her encouragement of women in ministry — both lay and clergy — was unwavering, and her belief in the call of others made her a midwife to countless ministries across the connection.”
Retired Bishop Linda Lee, also elected in 2000 shortly after Fisher, has the distinction of being the first Black woman elected bishop in the North Central Jurisdiction and fourth in the denomination. As fellow pioneers, Lee and Fisher became friends alongside the denomination’s first two Black women episcopal leaders — the late Bishops Leontine Kelly, elected in 1984, and Beverly Shamana, elected before Fisher in 2000.
“What I cherish and remember most about Bishop Fisher is the depth of her relationship with — and her reliance on — God,” Lee said. “It was the foundation of her courage, her bold integrity and her loving compassion. These qualities infused her ministry as an episcopal leader. She never hesitated to stand up for who and what she believed in.”
As a bishop, she combined a passion for evangelism with a commitment to social witness. She contributed to the work of both the United Methodist Board of Church and Society, the denomination’s public-witness agency, and United Methodist Discipleship Ministries, the denomination’s evangelism and faith-formation agency.
Fisher’s ministry exemplified that evangelism and justice advocacy are not in conflict, said Bishop Julius C. Trimble, who is now the top executive of Church and Society.
“Bishop Violet Fisher loved to preach and teach,” he said. “Her passionate preaching was filled with exuberant praise for God who could do all things but fail. Bishop Fisher was an encourager and a tireless voice for justice and the prophetic role of the Church.”
Fisher demonstrated that conviction at the 2008 General Conference when she delivered a sermon against the sin of racism.
“Like Jesus, we must choose the most difficult route and challenge ourselves to open the doors of diversity in The United Methodist Church,” she preached.
The United Methodist Commission on Religion and Race joined in mourning Fisher.
“Bishop Fisher spoke truth with grace, calling the church to repent of the sin of racism and live into God’s vision of beloved community,” the agency said in a statement to UM News. “Her witness throughout her ministry challenged us all to pursue equity, dignity and justice in Christ’s name. Her fearless spirit to call the church to account in the work of racial justice continues to be our call today.”
Fellow bishops also attest that Fisher promoted ecumenical connections throughout her ministry. She not only maintained friendships in the King’s Apostle Church; she also represented The United Methodist Church at the 1996 World Methodist Conference in Rio de Janeiro.
Maintaining close ties with fellow members of the Wesleyan tradition was important to Fisher.
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Bishop Gregory V. Palmer, current executive secretary of the Council of Bishops and former president from 2008 to 2010, said Fisher had “a strong ecumenical spirit.” She was deeply involved in keeping close ties with the historically Black denominations in the Pan-Methodist Commission — many formed as a result of white church members’ racism.
She was particularly interested in maintaining dialogue with the smaller denominations in the commission — the Union American Methodist Episcopal and First African Union Methodist Protestant Churches. Both trace their origins to Peter Spencer — a Black church leader who, like Fisher, was born on Maryland’s Eastern Shore. He eventually established the churches in neighboring Delaware.
Palmer said Fisher’s advocacy contributed to The United Methodist Church joining in a full communion agreement with fellow Pan-Methodist denominations in 2012.
“She really felt that intellect and heart were bound and should be bound together,” Palmer said, “She had no hesitation to blend strong analysis with what she would call ‘an anointing and the fire of the Holy Spirit.’”
Bishop LaTrelle Miller Easterling, who now leads the Baltimore-Washington and Peninsula-Delaware conferences where Fisher spent retirement, reflected on her legacy. Like Fisher, Easterling is also an African American woman in the episcopacy.
When the New England Conference delegation asked Easterling to consider episcopal candidacy in 2016, she sought Fisher’s wisdom and blessing and received both.
“We celebrate a life that glorified God, a servant shaped and used by the Holy Spirit, and a bishop who opened paths for others to walk,” Easterling wrote in a statement. “Her ministry, her love, and her witness endure in every life she touched, every congregation she strengthened, every young person she inspired, and every barrier she helped dismantle.”
Bishop Fisher is survived by her son, Marcus.
Hahn is assistant news editor for UM News. Contact her at (615) 742-5470 or newsdesk@umcom.org. To read more United Methodist news, subscribe to the free UM News Digest.
