"Courageous and prophetic" Pastor at Union United Methodist Church

A memorial service will be held for Bishop Martin D. McLee on Saturday October 11th at 1pm at Union United Methodist Church located at 485 Columbus Ave., in Boston's South End .

Union was the church where served as senior pastor for 8 years. Martin D. McLee was elected a bishop for the New York Annual Conference on July 19, 2012 and consecrated on July 20. McLee, 58, died Sept. 6 after a brief illness, just over two years after he was elected a bishop of The United Methodist Church.

In song, dance and words, thousands of mourners, including dozens of bishops, celebrated the life of New York Area Bishop Martin D. McLee during a moving service at the Riverside Church in New York City on Monday, Sept. 15.Council of Bishops President Warner Brown described McLee as a bishop of the church with a passion for embracing the marginalized, joyfully calling for a day acceptable to God and calling the best out of God's people. "He had the courage to seek justice, mercy and love because he walked humbly with a God who would never leave him alone," said Brown, who is also Resident Bishop of the San Francisco Area. He noted that while some people may have found the way McLee preached, rapped and sang to be unconventional, "McLee used all the gifts he had to turn a light on in the eyes of those for whom the light of hope had gone out."

Speaking on behalf of the NYAC Cabinet, the Rev. Adrienne Brewington, dean of the Cabinet, said McLee was courageous enough to confront the issue of human sexuality so often divisive in the church. She said he was always calling for an inclusive church regardless of race, age, gender or sexual preference.In March, 2014 McLee as the head bishop of the United Methodist Church in New York committed to ending church trials in his region for ministers who performed same sex-marriages, essentially freeing them to conduct a ceremony still prohibited under his denomination's laws. As the first sitting United Methodist bishop to publicly make such a pledge, Bishop Martin D. McLee instantly became a leading figure in a decades-old movement within the United Methodist Church, the country's second-largest Protestant denomination, to extend equal recognition and rights to gay and lesbian members.

At the time of his decision Bishop McLee said that he hoped his approach would heal the church's deep divisions over homosexuality, more conservative Methodists warned that his actions would push the denomination closer to an irrevocable split. The Rev. Jay Williams, lead pastor of The Union UMC in Boston, where McLee pastored and helped Williams answer a call to ministry, echoed the courage of McLee to confront the issue of gays and lesbians in the church at the time when most people were not talking about it. Referring to McLee as "McBishop," Williams declared: "You were a courageous and prophetic preacher and you were not ashamed of the Gospel."

He thanked McLee for what he called "McLee-isms" such as, "If you don't know Jesus, you better ask someone," and "Ain't no party like a holy ghost party because a holy ghost party don't stop."

McLee was born on Sept. 10, 1955, to Robert E. McLee and Pecolia B. McLee in Brooklyn, New York. He graduated with honors from Hunter College with a bachelor of science in Health, received a master of science in Education from Fordham University, and juris doctor from the Thurgood Marshall School of Law at Texas Southern University in Houston. He later went to the Southern Methodist University in Dallas to receive his Master of Divinity.

McLee was nurtured as a youth at Cuyler-Warren UMC but was also a son of the St. Luke "Community" UMC in Dallas, Texas, where he responded to the call to ministry under the leadership of Holmes.

He had served as adjunct professor of social work at Simmons College and at Brandeis University. He was committed to activism and frequently lectured on issues concerning

HIV/AIDS and the faith community, race relations and social justice, and served as a Juvenile Justice Advocate and public school educator prior to entering the ministry... He also served as president of the Northeastern Jurisdiction's Multi-Ethnic Center, vice president of the Strengthening the Black Church for the Twenty-First Century Initiative, and on the boards of Drew University, New York Theological Seminary and New York Methodist Hospital.

Expressions of condolence can be sent to: The Family of Bishop Martin D. McLee c/o The New York Annual Conference, 20 Soundview Ave., White Plains, New York, 10606.

Donations in lieu of flowers can be made to McLee's "Young Clergy Debt Assistance Program."

Please make checks payable to "NYAC" and send to the attention of Ross Williams at the New York Annual Conference.