Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie is the new interim General Secretary/President of the National Council of Churches representing 37 communions, 100,000 churches and 30 million people. She is also the 117th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. She is the first female elected to episcopal office in the more than the two-century-old AME Church and is the first female to serve as President of the Council of Bishops and President of the General Board.
Bishop McKenzie has served as a Presiding Prelate in the 18th Episcopal District, in Southern Africa, the 13th Episcopal District which includes Kentucky and Tennessee and the 10th Episcopal District, the state of Texas. While serving in Texas, she also served as Chair of the Board of Trustees at Paul Quinn College, Dallas, Texas which experienced exponential growth including the renovation of the Richard Allen Chapel and the new Trammell Crow Life, Living and Learning dormitory complex that includes a new-state-of-the-art gymnasium. She also established two non-profits which raised funds outside of tithes and offerings for church and community projects in two of her districts.
Bishop McKenzie, serves the National Council of Churches after recently retiring from active service in the AME Church at the 51st Quadrennial session of the General Conference in 2021. She is also serving at Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio, working on documentaries. She has been the visionary behind five documentaries, four of them in The Anvil series, of the Council of Bishops serving as producer, executive producer and senior editor. The newest documentary, AME Next, was released in early 2022.
Characterized as “an electrifying preacher”, Bishop McKenzie continues to preach and teach globally as well as serve as a workshop/seminar instructor for congregations, corporations and a variety of organizations on the topics of women, leadership, spirituality, and self-care.
Bishop McKenzie has been active in social justice issues for more than three decades. She was appointed in 2009 by President Barack Obama to be on the inaugural White House Commission of Faith Based and Neighborhood Partnership. This group worked on behalf of Americans committed to improving their communities, no matter their religious or political beliefs. She was named by Huffington Post in 2014 as one of the 50 Most Powerful Women Religious Leaders in the World.
She is the founder of Selah Leadership Encounters for Women, a wraparound multi-disciplinary approach to resourcing women who want to level up their spiritual, professional and personal lives. In this COVID era, Selah, The Home Edition has been streamed on Facebook and YouTube. A new edition, Selah Read debuted virtually in February, 2022.
Bishop McKenzie is the author of six books including Not Without a Struggle and Journey to the Well. Her newest book is The Big Deal of Taking Small Steps to Move Closer to God. The book shows how to develop a stronger relationship with God with a more effective Christian lifestyle by taking small steps that lead to big changes. Download the Book Club Guide from her App Praycation.
Bishop McKenzie founded Kerygma LLC, sixteen years ago to “Tell stories too important not to be told” producing her first documentary Survivor Stories which aired on
TV One. She is a graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, Howard University, School of Religion and has an earned doctorate from United Theological Seminary.
Bishop McKenzie is the National Chaplain of Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Inc. the largest predominantly African American sorority in the world. She is the widow of former NBA player, Dr. Stan McKenzie, the mother of three adult children and “Nina” to three grandchildren.
