About
When you hear the term “annual conference,” it could be referring to any one of three things. The annual conference is a regional body, an organizational unit AND a yearly meeting.
The 13th Episcopal District's yearly meeting happens in the month of September.
​
District body
An annual conference may cover an entire state, only part of the state, or even parts of two or more states. There are also three missionary conferences, which rely upon the denomination as a whole for funding.
​
Organizational body
The annual conference has a central church that hosts the event along with the district's professional staff that coordinate and conduct ministry and the business of the conference. Clergy and laypersons may also serve on conference boards, commissions and committees.
​
Annual Conference sessions
Each year an equal number of clergy members and lay members attend their conference's annual conference session for worship, fellowship, and to conduct the business of the conference, which may last 2-4 days. These sessions include reports of past and ongoing work; adoption of future goals, programs and budgets; ordination of clergy members as deacons and elders; and election of delegates to Jurisdictional and General Conferences (every 4 years). The bishop presides over these meetings.
E. Anne Henning Byfield
BISHOP 13th EPISCOPAL DISTRICT
AME CHURCH
BIG GOD, BIG THINGS, THINK BIG
Anne Henning Byfield serves as the 135th elected and consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Her historic election in the year 2016 represents the first time in the history of the AME Church, a person was elected who has a sibling on the bench of Bishops, Bishop C. Garnett Henning. She is also the fourth elected Bishop who is a woman. Assigned in 2016 by the General Conference, she serves as the Bishop of the 16th Episcopal District, where she provides leadership to seven annual conferences representing fourteen countries, in the Caribbean, South America, and Europe. During her tenure, six churches have been established in the district, a vocational school in Haiti, and orphanage in Haiti, and a children’s mission in Haiti. Sustainability projects have been A initiated in Virgin Islands and Jamaica, and theological partnerships have been established in Dominican Republic.
Bishop Byfield was assigned to the 13th Episcopal District at the 51st Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the AME Church.
Rev. William R.T. Hale
Kentucky Annual Conference
Presiding Elder
Commonwealth District
​
​
​
​
​
REV. KENNETH GOLPHIN
Kentucky Annual Conference
Presiding Elder
Bluegrass District
Rev. Troy I. Thomas
Kentucky Annual Conference
Presiding Elder
Louisville District
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
Pastor LaVeeshia Pryor
Kentucky Annual Conference
Host Pastor of
St. John A.M.E. Church
​
​
​
OUR STORY
The African Methodist Episcopal Church is a connectional organization. Each local church is a part of the larger connection.
​
The Bishops are the Chief Officers of the Connectional Organization. They are elected for life by a majority vote of the General Conference which meets every four years. Bishops are bound by the laws of the church to retire upon the General Conference nearest their 75th birthday.
​
Presiding Elders are the assistants, like middle management, whom the Bishops appoint to supervise the preachers in a Presiding Elder’s District. A Presiding Elder District is one portion of an Annual Conference, which in turn is one part of the Episcopal District over which a Bishop presides. In the Presiding Elder District, the appointed Presiding Elder meets with the local churches, that comprise the District, at least once every three months for a Quarterly Conference. The Presiding Elder also presides over a District Conference and a Sunday School Convention in his or her District. At the end of an Annual Conference year, the Presiding Elder reports to the Bishop at the Annual Conference and makes recommendations for pastoral appointments.
​
Pastors receive a yearly appointment to a charge (church), on the recommendation of the Presiding Elder and with the approval and final appointment of the Bishop. The pastor is in full charge of the Church and is an ex-official member of all boards, organizations and clubs of that Church.