Louis-Charles Harvey

 B.A. M.Div. M.Phil. PhD  D.H.L

Louis-Charles Harvey was born in Memphis, Tennessee where he attended public schools and LeMoyne-Owen College from which he received the Baccalaureate degree. Further he received the Master of Divinity degree from Colgate Rochester Divinity School (Rochester New York) and the Master of Philosophy and PhD degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York City in 1977 and 1978, respectively in the field of Systematic Theology.  He was one of the first African Americans to receive a degree in this area of study from this seminary.

Dr. Harvey is a life long member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and has been an ordained elder for more than 30 years. His career in Christian ministry has been rich and varied. As Professor he taught courses in the area of Systematic Theology, Black Church History, Black Gospel Music, and Christian Ethics at the following seminaries: Colgate Rochester, United Theological Seminary (Dayton, Ohio), and Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce Ohio.  Moreover, he has served as Pastor or Associate Pastor in the First, Thirteenth, Third and Second Episcopal Districts. He is renowned in the AME Church as scholar, theologian, ethicist, workshop leader, preacher and writer. In these capacities he has written and presented articles for The AME Position Papers for many sessions of The A.M.E. General Conferences.

As preacher Dr. Harvey has preached internationally at historic Wesley Chapel in London England, in South Africa and through out the Continental United States. In 2001 He was the Martin Luther King Jr. Lecturer/Preacher at Wesley Seminary in Washington, DC and the Arthur Heck Lecturer at United Theological Seminary (Dayton Ohio).

During his career Dr. Harvey has published many articles dealing with Black Gospel Music, Black Theology, Christian Ethics, and Black Religion in Great Britain. His work has been featured in many scholarly Journals including, The AME Review, The Journal of Religious Thought, The International Review of Missions and in the following books: "From Brother to Brother: Black Men in Prison" and "Something More than Human"  .    In

Addition, co- edited and contributed chapters to: The A.M.E. Pastors Manual for the 21^st Century (2000) and A Model of a Servant Bishop (2003) which is a collection of essays describing the ministry of Bishop Vinton R. Anderson. More recently he contributed an article to the July-September 2006 edition of the AME Review entitled”” Another Look at Theodicy and the Hurricane Katrina Event”.

Prior to his appointment as the 21^st pastor of Metropolitan AME Church in Washington DC., known as the Cathedral of African Methodism in 1996, Dr. Harvey served as President of Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce Ohio. During his seven year tenure the seminary received full accreditation [in1995] from the Association of Theological Schools, the first time the seminary had been accredited in its 160 year history.

As pastor of Metropolitan, he led the effort to successfully complete the Christian Education renovation project which was commenced under his predecessor. Additionally he reorganized the administrative infrastructure, brought many souls to Christ and initiated many new ministries. The Daniel Alexander Payne Community Development Corporation was also developed during his administration.

On November 20, 1996, The Board of Trustees of Payne, in the effort to honor Dr. Harvey for extraordinary leadership, dedication and commitment, unanimously designated him as President Emeritus-the first president in the school’s long history to be so honored. Moreover he was granted the Doctor of Humane Letters degree (D.H.L.) by Payne Seminary in May, 1998.

Dr. Harvey is a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, the Society for the Study of Black Religion, Who’s Who in Religion, Who’s Who in  Black America  and was one of ten  African Americans featured in the  45^th Anniversary edition of Ebony Magazine. Moreover, in 1995 he was the recipient of the Alpha Excellence Award by the Alpha Rho Chapter, Columbus, Ohio.,

Currently Dr. Harvey serves as Presiding Elder of the Potomac District, Washington Annual Conference where he has served since his appointment by Bishop Vinton Anderson in June 2001 and subsequent reappointment by Bishop A.J. Richardson. He is also a faculty member of Ebenezer AME Church Bible Institute (Fort Washington, MD); has served as Visiting Professor of Ethics, Howard University Divinity School and is a member of the Board of Trustees of The Churches Center for Theology and Public Policy, Washington, DC.  .

This distinguished Christian servant-preacher administrator, ethicist preacher and theologian is the proud father of two children Marcus Louis, a Doctoral Candidate at Emory University, in Atlanta and Melanee Charles a junior at Spelman College in the same city.