About

Dr. Clement W. Fugh, General Secretary
and Chief Information Officer,
African Methodist Episcopal Church

About the Candidate
I am a visionary who has the courage to pursue the vision, and the organizational skills to involve others in its actualization as I have demonstrated during the last three quadrennials as General Secretary and Chief Information Officer. I am an itinerant elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church with more than a quarter century of successful, productive pastoral experience. And, I possess a familiarity with the doctrine and discipline of African Methodism that results from more than three decades in revision and compilation of THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE.

My pastoral service began at Mt. Pisgah AME Church in Lucy, Tennessee, where the membership increased by 50%, and concluded at Greater Bethel AME Church, Nashville, where a new worship and service center valued at $3.2 million was erected.

In the Thirteenth Episcopal District I served as Director of Christian Education or Dean of the Congress for 12 years during the administrations of Bishops Howard Thomas Primm, William Franklin Ball and Cornelius Egbert Thomas. For 10 years during the administrations of Bishops Cornelius Egbert Thomas, Vernon Randolph Byrd and Hamel Hartford Brookins I served as Episcopal District Accountant.

Connectionally, I have been a member of the Revisions Committee, the Compilation Committee, and the Correcting and Editing Committee of THE BOOK OF DISCIPLINE since 1980. I also served as secretary of the Committee on Worship and Liturgy that produced the BI-CENTENNIAL HYMNAL and the BOOK OF WORSHIP.

At the 46th Quadrennial Session of the General Conference in 2000, I was elected the fifth General Secretary of the AME Church. Currently I am serving my third term. As a result of my service in this capacity, the African Methodist Episcopal Church now has a prominent address on the World Wide Web, www.AME-Church.com, that receives 20,000 visits a month; a database of more than four thousand (4000) churches; and paperless Pastor Annual Conference reporting. Connectional Departments are now able to share information because of the introduction of a Data Convergence Program. Through collaboration with the Department of Annuity Investments and Insurance, a Connectional Ministerial Directory has been created which includes the profiles of more than five thousand (5000) ministers and is automatically updated.

Since 2000 I have worked in tandem with the Treasurer and Chief Financial Officer to make each successive General Conference more technologically advanced. Examples are: handheld electronic voting devices; onscreen reporting; posting of proposed legislation online months prior to the convening of the General Conference; and introduction of the Digi Mic Audio System which has drastically improved the decorum of the Business Sessions.

In the global community I have served two terms as a member of the World Methodist Council (Nairobi, Kenya; Seoul, Korea). I am also a member of the Interdenominational Executives Group and serve as Secretary of the Board of Trustees of Payne Theological Seminary. Articles, meditations and sermons that I have authored appear in “Liberation and Unity, THE AFRICAN AMERICAN DEVOTIONAL BIBLE, THE PASTOR’S MANUAL FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY, “The A.M.E. Review,” and “The Christian Recorder.”

I have “made full proof of my ministry” in whatever venue the Church has given me the opportunity to serve. I promise to do no less if given the coveted opportunity to serve the Church through the Episcopacy.

I am at your service.

Clement W. Fugh, BBA, ThM, DMin
Candidate for Episcopal Service – 2012