When I became curious about the work of the Holy Spirit in my life, it was Rev. Cecelia Williams Bryant, who started a class at Bethel AME Church in West Baltimore called Power for Living. When my interest in spiritual healing was piqued, it was Rev. C, as she is called, who started a Saturday morning class on healing. I wasn’t even a member of Bethel, but when the hand of God began to tug at my spirit with a call to ministry, there she was again, hosting a ‘Behold the Woman’ conference in a downtown arena.
It was as if she had been assigned to my case and I’m sure I’m not alone. I’m also sure I was not alone in wondering who would pray for us, who would gather us for prayer, when we learned she had eased out of time into eternity.
It was she who easily summoned the world together in prayer. It was she who prayed before kings and queens, bishops and potentates.
“Rev. Dr. Cecilia Bryant was a commanding disciple who stood deep and strong in her faith and family, as she remained deeply dedicated to the cause of salvation,” Maryland Rep. Kweisi Mfume said in a statement. “As an advocate for community healing and mental health awareness, she committed her whole life to spreading the word of God as a liberating and annointing force to everyone she met. She will be dearly missed but never forgotten.”
A Steadfast Relationship With God
It was clear to everyone that Rev. C held a special place in the heart of God and could summon his attention to whatever situations we faced; and we could therefore expect relief because of her relationship with the Lord.
This relationship began years ago through the praying heart and hands of her mother, and flourished throughout her youth and even more in her relationship with Bishop John Richard Bryant to whom she was married for 55 years.
Together they changed the whole scene at Bethel AME Church.
“The AME church was typically a quiet type of a service, very solemn,” Wanda Watts, director of the Wattsline who joined Bethel AME in 1977, told the AFRO, “and he changed that with choirs that sang contemporary music, and a different way of praising than AME had been accustomed to.”
She said he became everybody’s bishop.
“If you’re Baptist, he’s still your bishop.”
The community began to come into Bethel AME church They came in dashikis ’cause that was the mode of the day. They came in jeans. They came in sandals. They came with wraps on their heads. They came happy. And they came high.
But they came to Bethel AME
And they were well served until the ministry demanded the couple be elevated to bishop and district superintendent.
A Spiritual Visionary
“Rev. C was an extraordinary spiritual leader and visionary whose impact spanned the globe. As a spiritual director, missionary and women’s empowerment leader, she embraced a calling to bring healing to the nations,” according to a statement from New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, where her son, Dr. Jamal-Harrison Bryant is pastor.
“Her leadership awakened the African and Diasporic Church to critical issues such as health, ecological wellness, development, culture and peace. She co-founded the AME Church in India with her husband and was the founder of the AME Church in the Ivory Coast.”
Bishop Walter S. Thomas of New Psalmist Baptist Church in Baltimore, called her a spiritual lighthouse always pointing to safe haven and referred to the precious love with which she raised her children and stood beside her husband as they did their kingdom work. “There was such a vibrancy and zest for life that exudes from her and it was born out of her wonder for God.” He said she’s missed already.
Rev. C preached on prayer, wrote books on prayer, summoned groups to prayer, called seasons of prayer, but most importantly she was a determined intercessor
Nurturing Generations in Ministry
Her children in ministry are almost innumerable. “I met her when I was 17-years-old, at Emerson College, while attending St. Paul AME Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts. I’d never seen a dynamo Black Christian team, with Afros and dashikis and anointing, male and female,” says Former Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook.
”About 40 of us became senior pastors out of that era, leading congregations throughout the nation and she and Bishop John have always been there for us and with use. For those entering ministry in the 1980s, there were no female role models except Rev. C.”
The faith community can hardly stand the thought of letting her go, even if it is into the arms of God. Many regards of sweet peace have been offered through all the social media platforms, with remembrances of that special touch.
”Last year she sent me prayers for a challenge our family was going through, texting regularly. And for the past few weeks we changed roles and this time I sent her prayers and covered her,” Johnson Cook says.
”I don’t even have words to describe how I feel, only to say, I thank God for her; her ministry, her devotion, her marriage, her motherhood and her love.”
