John Wesley Church
*Cameron Alleyne was born on this date in 1880. He was a Caribbean-American bishop.
Cameron Chesterfield Alleyne was born in Bridgetown, Barbados, to Robert Henry Alleyne and Amelia Anna Alleyne. He attended Naparima College in Trinidad between 1899 and 1903 before traveling to the United States for a Bachelor of Arts degree at Tuskegee Institute in Alabama.
Alleyne was ordained as a deacon in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church (AMEZ) on October 5, 1904. Alleyne was pastor to Anniston, Alabama, and there married Lucille Annie Washington on June 29, 1905 (they had one child together). He served at a church in St. Elmo, Chattanooga, Tennessee, between 1905 and 1908 and at the John Wesley Church in Washington, D.C. (shown) from 1907 to 1912. Alleyne was in Rhode Island from 1912 to 1916 at the Hood Memorial Church in Charlotte, North Carolina.
In 1915, he was awarded an honorary Master of Arts degree by Livingstone College, North Carolina, and in 1924 an honorary Doctor of Divinity degree by Howard University. Alleyne became a trustee of Livingstone College, Shorter College, and Payne Theological Seminary. Between 1916 and 1924, Alleyne also worked as editor of the AMEZ's journal, the Quarterly Review. Alleyne was one of five bishops elected at the AMEZ General Convention in 1924 and was the AMEZ's 44th bishop. Alleyne was consecrated as a bishop on May 20, 1924, and appointed to the churches in Liberia, Nigeria, Ghana, and elsewhere in Africa. Alleyne moved to the continent as the first-ever resident bishop in Africa.
In 1931, he published a book, Gold Coast at a Glance. Alleyne returned to the United States in 1928 and served initially with AMEZ's seventh episcopal district. During this time, he lived in Philadelphia. He transferred to the sixth episcopal district in 1936, assuming responsibility for churches in South America, the U.S. Virgin Islands, and some in the United States. After the United States joined World War II, Alleyne was the AMEZ representative to the Commission of Army and Navy Chaplains. Alleyne's wife Lucille died in May 1944, and he married Bettye Lee Roberts in June 1946. He published his autobiography Twenty-Five Years in the Episcopacy in 1950. Cameron Alleyne died on March 24, 1955, in Philadelphia.
