Hampton University Welcomes Ministers, Musicians To Annual Conference

HAMPTON
The 102nd Hampton University Ministers’ Conference and the 82nd Choir Directors’ and Organists’ Guild Workshop is proving to be a lively and spiritual event for thousands of ministers from across the nation. The week-long gathering opened on Monday, June 5 and concludes on Friday, June 10 at Hampton University under the direction of HU’s Chaplain, Rev. Debra L. Haggins. Rev. Dr. Dwight S. Riddick Sr. of Chesapeake is the conference president. Dr. Geoffrey V. Guns of Norfolk is the liturgist.

Concurrent with the daily workshops and evening sermons are workshops for choir directors and church musicians. The 2016 conference speakers include Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie, who serves as the 117th elected consecrated bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church. In 2000, she became the first woman to attain the level of Episcopal office.
Other speakers include Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant of Baltimore, who has been noted in the Black Lives Matter Movement, and Bishop Charles E. Blake, Sr., the Presiding Bishop of the General Assembly of the Church of God in Christ.

Other distinguished conference speakers are Dr. Carolyn Ann Knight, Denver, CO; Rev. Dr. James Henry Harris, Chesterfield County, VA; Reverend Sheleta Fomby, Prince George’s County, MD; Bishop Rudolph W. McKissick Jr., Jacksonville, FL; and Rev. J. Lawrence Turner Memphis, TN.