PNBC elects Oklahoma pastor as president

WASHINGTON — The Progressive National Baptist Convention has elected an Oklahoma City pastor as its new president.

Major L. Jemison, pastor of St. John Missionary Baptist Church in Oklahoma City, succeeds C. Mackey Daniels of Louisville. Jemison, who previously served as the denomination’s first vice president, was elected to a four-year term Aug. 8 during the annual meeting of the 2.5 million number Baptist group in St. Louis.

The National Baptist Convention (USA) invited Jemison to give the keynote address at a Sept. 3 banquet during its annual session in Philadelphia. In 1960, a dispute over ideology at a NBCUSA meeting in that same city prompted some members of the NBCUSA to break away and form the Progressive National Baptist Convention.

“It is our sincere hope that this pivotal occasion will be the impetus for the healing between our two conventions,” said William J. Shaw, NBCUSA president, in a statement.