Revs. Harry E. and Wilma Lynette Gordon Taylor

Revs. Harry E. and Wilma Lynette Gordon Taylor welcome you to Mother Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church. 

Rev. Wilma Lynette Gordon was admitted into the Fifth District, California Annual Conference from Parks Chapel AMEC in 1988, and Rev. Harry Taylor was admitted the following year from First AME-Richmond. We were married in 1993 and are both proud graduates of Wilberforce University (1996, 1999), and Payne Theological Seminary (2003).  We were ordained Itinerant Elders in the AME Church in 1999. Rev. Lynette Taylor graduated from Walden University with a master’s degree in public health in 2008. Her public health orientation emphasizes practical solutions for addressing the health disparities that infect, cripple and kill members of the African American community. Her focus is on the identification of racism as the premiere social determinant of chronic illness and other maladies that prevent positive health outcomes, especially among women, uses a Life Course model that inspires her desire to pursue a Ph.D. shaped by interdisciplinary studies.

In the summer of 2011 Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler, PhD., Senior Pastor offered Rev. Wilma Lynette Gordon Taylor a paid staff position at Mother Bethel AMEC as Associate Pastor of Community Relations and Outreach. As a couple in ministry, we joined Mother Bethel as Affiliate Members and continued to answer the role at the California Annual Conference of Fifth Episcopal District. Our work in this, the First Episcopal District, has been primarily at the local church level. At Mother Bethel Rev. Lynette Taylor cultivates relationships with organizations, agencies, and churches throughout Philadelphia and beyond in efforts to collaborate with the needs of members and those in the community. She coordinates sick and shut-in visitations and addresses congregational concerns. She is an occasional Bible study instructor. She assists in the development of new ministries and is the clergy representative on local church commissions. 

Rev. Harry E. Taylor, also actively serves under the leadership of Senior Pastor Tyler as an Associate Pastor. While pursuing his education, Rev. Harry E. Taylor had the opportunity to pastor two small churches in the Ohio Annual Conference. He began serving one congregation in 1996, and the second congregation was added in 1998. He served the two congregations until 2002. In addition to parish ministry, Rev. Harry E. Taylor feels called to Ph.D. research toward developing social theory related to cultural minorities responses to y on the scholarship and experience of certain personalities from the African Diaspora as well as other minority group types who negotiate/liberation via forms of social activism. 

Our education and experience have together provided a heightened awareness of the role of social context in Christian ministry, as well as a yearning to bring together the people who worship in their local churches and the academic scholars who develop the knowledge that informs the faith represented by these local churches. From our experience in various positions of leadership within the Church, we seek a better understanding to guide the praxis of ministering to others.  We work to promote a new consciousness regarding the value of cultural particularities in public discourse about Divinity. 

While we appreciate and honor our individual gifts and interest in ministry and leadership, we enjoy best the opportunity to practice ministry as a couple. We share a passion to develop practical ministry models that reflect modern research in academic disciplines related to the Church and are encouraged by the biblical account of Aquila and Priscilla. We practice a co-ministry model and prefer opportunities in congregations where it is possible. We greatly value the privilege to develop and practice our faith commitment at Mother Bethel.