Wilberforce, Ohio · Founded 1894
“The oldest freestanding African American seminary in the United States — 130-plus years of training AME pulpits, bishops, and Black church scholars in the quiet hills of Wilberforce, Ohio.”
The 133rd commencement address (May 2026) — the first commencement of the Holley presidency, delivered by the board chair and 137th AME bishop.
Full recording of the 133rd Commencement Ceremony — the school's central annual rite, held at Phillips Temple Church in Trotwood, Ohio.
Doctor of Ministry intensive opening worship with guest preacher Elder Norman Harris — a window into Payne's hybrid graduate formation model.
Feature documentary produced by Payne Theological Seminary (executive producer Bishop Vashti McKenzie) on Jarena Lee, the AME Church's first woman preacher — the school's most ambitious film project.
Archived lecture from the seminary's Payne Lectures series, one of its standing academic traditions.
Conversation on Payne alumnus and 92nd AME bishop Vinton Anderson, featuring Payne's Distinguished Professor of Christian Ethics Dr. Charles S. Brown and the bishop's widow — alumni legacy in the school's own voice.
The Christian Recorder's interview with Dr. Holley when she was Payne's academic dean — her vision for the school's future before she became its 18th president.
AME clergy panel on preaching after the 2024 election, featuring Payne's academic dean Dr. Betty Holley alongside bishops including Silvester Beaman and Vashti McKenzie — Payne's voice in the denomination's prophetic conversation.
Promo for the seminary's February 2026 Egypt pilgrimage, hosted by Payne alumna and adjunct professor Dr. Rosalynn Brookins with President Michael Joseph Brown and alumna Kathleen Wright.
Announcement of Payne's partnership in the Howard-led, Lilly Endowment-backed $10M initiative — the biggest recent investment in Black theological education.
The seminary's GivingTuesday appeal — 'sow into the next generation of justice-minded Christian leaders' under the Learn. Lead. Liberate. banner.
Long-form interview with Payne D.Min graduate Dr. Laurent Grosvenor on leadership, preaching since age 9, and ministry across four continents.
92nd elected AME bishop; M.Div. from Payne. Ecumenical statesman — vice chair of the World Methodist Council's North American section, chair of worship and liturgy for the Consultation on Church Union, and architect of the AME hymnal's Bicentennial Edition and first Book of Worship.
139th elected AME bishop and Payne alumnus; chosen by President Joseph Biden — a friend of nearly 30 years — to deliver the benediction at the January 20, 2021 presidential inauguration. Pastored three churches with 50+ new ministries and 2,700 new members before his episcopal election.
52nd elected AME bishop; trained at Payne Seminary. Elected in 1928, he was the first bishop ever elected from Texas — born in Texas and serving there when elevated — and served in southern Africa and Texas.
63rd elected AME bishop; attended Payne Seminary. A Cleveland native and son of a veteran pastor in Canada, Bermuda, and the U.S., elected in 1944 from his pastorate at Ebenezer AME in Detroit; served the 1st, 2nd, and 4th Episcopal Districts.
71st elected AME bishop; trained at Payne. Elected in 1952 from Union Bethel in New Orleans, where he built the Four Freedoms Building; served the 4th, 5th, and 13th Episcopal Districts.
79th elected AME bishop; trained at Payne. Served Bethel in Pittsburgh and Allen and Mother Bethel in Philadelphia before his 1960 election; served in Africa, then Arkansas and Oklahoma.
Pioneer female clergy, graduated in the 1910s — among the earliest women trained for ordained ministry at any American theological school, a century before Payne's first woman president.
Pioneer female clergy, graduated in the 1910s alongside Martha Jayne Keys, part of Payne's early and quietly radical opening to women in ministry.
12th Historiographer of the AME Church (1980–1988) — the denomination's chief keeper of memory — and a Payne alumnus.
18th Editor of The Christian Recorder (1976–1996), the AME Church's historic newspaper, and a Payne alumnus — linking the seminary to the denomination's press tradition founded by Payne's own dean, Bishop Tanner.
M.Div. from Payne; elected 18th president of the seminary in 2026; first African American woman chair of the ATS Commission on Accrediting board (2022); presiding elder of the Springfield-Xenia District.
Payne alumna and adjunct professor; hosted the seminary's February 2026 spiritual pilgrimage to Egypt, 'Walk the Sacred Sands,' alongside President Brown and biblical storyteller Kathleen Wright.
Payne alumna and noted biblical storyteller; joined the seminary's 2026 Egypt pilgrimage as a featured teacher.
Doctor of Ministry graduate of Payne; senior pastor of Alpha Seventh-day Adventist Church in Austin, Texas — a cross-denominational reach for the degree, with an M.Div. from Andrews and MBA from Baylor.
Doctor of Ministry in Pastoral Leadership and Community Engagement from Payne; pastor of Bethel Cathedral AME Church in Indianapolis, mission leader across Jamaica, Trinidad and Tobago, Rwanda, and Ghana.
Member of Payne's very first Bachelor of Divinity graduating class (1894) — one of the first three B.Div. graduates in the seminary's history.
Holds an honorary Doctor of Divinity from Payne (not an earned degree); senior pastor of historic Saint Philip AME in Atlanta, author of 26 books, and guest lecturer at Payne and Turner seminaries.
The Ohio Conference of the AME Church was authorized to build a seminary and manual training school — the institutional seed that would grow into both Wilberforce University and, decades later, Payne Seminary. At the time, there was almost nowhere in the United States where Black people could get advanced theological education. The 1844 authorization meant the AME Church would train its own clergy rather than depend on white institutions that would not have them.
Union Seminary opened in 1847 as the direct result of the Ohio Conference's authorization. It was a seminary and manual training school rooted in the AME conviction that an educated ministry was essential to the freedom and dignity of Black people. Union Seminary's existence laid the groundwork for what would become Wilberforce University — the first college owned and governed by African Americans.
In 1863, during the Civil War, the AME Church purchased the property of Wilberforce University, a closed and indebted Methodist Episcopal college. Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne became the institution's second president, serving from 1863 to 1877 — making him the first African-American college president in the United States. Payne set out to create a religiously and classically oriented institution for Black men and women at a time when such an education was nearly impossible to find.
On the motion of Bishop Abraham Grant, the Wilberforce University board of trustees appointed Bishop Benjamin Arnett to chair a committee to 'consider the propriety and feasibility of establishing a Theological Seminary at Wilberforce, to be part of, but not to be controlled by' the university — a 'peculiar arrangement' meant to make the seminary more efficient. The Council of Bishops unanimously approved the plan on February 28, 1891, and the board formally established the seminary that year, appointing Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne as its first dean. Payne died in 1893, having lived to see the convergence of all he held dear: God, the Scriptures, ministry, and education.
The trustees' organizational plans called for purchasing the homestead of Rev. John G. and Fannie A. Mitchell for $8,500 as the seminary's future site. The plan was adopted with modifications, and the seminary was officially dedicated on the Mitchell homestead on September 20, 1892. That tract of land in Wilberforce, Ohio, remains the seminary's home more than 130 years later. The $8,500 purchase was a serious act of faith by a church whose people had only recently emerged from slavery.
On June 19, 1894, 'Payne Theological Seminary of Wilberforce University' was incorporated by AME Bishops Alexander Wayman, Benjamin Arnett, James Handy, and Benjamin Lee, together with John Mitchell, James Shorter, and William Scarborough. The incorporation documents stated the school's purpose: 'promoting education, religion, and morality by the education of persons for the Christian ministry and missionaries for the redemption of Africa and other foreign lands.' The first Bachelor of Divinity graduates were E. T. Demby, Charles Henry Johnson, and William Polk, Jr.; C. H. Colemen received an English Theological certificate.
Rev. John G. Mitchell, whose family homestead had become the campus, served as the seminary's second dean from 1893 to November 1900. His deanship steadied the brand-new institution through its first critical years after incorporation. Under Mitchell, Payne settled into its identity as the AME Church's dedicated school for forming pastors and missionaries.
Bishop Benjamin T. Tanner — founder of The Christian Recorder, the AME Church's newspaper and one of the most influential Black publications in America — served as dean from 1900 to 1902. His episcopal duties kept him away from campus, and he was present mainly during commencement. But his name lent the young seminary the full weight of his journalistic and churchly legacy, binding the school to the AME Church's tradition of the press and the pulpit as twin instruments of liberation.
Rev. George F. Woodson became dean in 1902 and held the office until 1937 — a thirty-five-year tenure that gave Payne its first long stretch of stable leadership. During his deanship, Woodson diversified the curriculum beyond its original scope, broadening what a Payne-trained minister was expected to know. His tenure carried the seminary through the Great Migration era, when Black churches in northern cities desperately needed trained pastors, and Payne alumni helped fill that need.
In the 1910s, Payne graduated pioneer female clergy including Martha Jayne Keys and Mary Evans — at a time when few theological schools anywhere trained women for ordained ministry. Their graduation marked Payne as an institution where the AME Church's early, conflicted conversation about women in the pulpit found one of its earliest concrete outcomes. The legacy continued: more than a century later, Payne would make national history again with its first woman president.
Dean Charles S. Spivey, Sr. served from 1937 to 1944, and his deanship was defined by a single emphasis: the urgent need for an educated clergy. His argument landed in an era when many Black congregations were led by gifted but informally trained preachers. Spivey insisted that seminary formation was not a luxury but a necessity for a church that intended to survive and lead.
Dougal Ormonde B. Walker became interim-dean in 1944 and, despite his short tenure, began Payne's development toward becoming an accredited institution. Dean John H. Lewis, who held the office from 1944 to 1951, continued the accreditation process Walker had started. Lewis also pressed the physical case for the school, appealing for a new administrative building and insisting that the campus's buildings and grounds be renovated — a minister's formation, he believed, deserved decent surroundings.
Dean Rembert E. Stokes served from 1951 to 1956, and his tenure was the most consequential of the twentieth century. Enrollment increased, the long-sought administration building was completed, and — most visibly — the stained-glass windows of the Chapel of the Living Savior were installed. Stokes commissioned experts to produce nine windows featuring Biblical heroes (Jesus, Moses, Amos, St. Paul, and Martin Luther) alongside AME Church heroes (Wesley, Wilberforce, Allen, and Payne), acclaimed for their conceptual and artistic design. Payne achieved accreditation during Stokes's deanship. In 1956, Stokes left Payne to become president of Wilberforce University, where he served from 1956 to 1976.
Dean Charles S. Spivey, Jr. — a Payne graduate himself — served from 1957 to 1967 and raised the funds to furnish the academic building and the Chapel of the Living Savior. His decade turned the buildings Stokes had completed into fully equipped spaces for teaching and worship. Alvia A. Shaw served as interim-dean in 1968. What followed was a long era of deans and then presidents whose complete roster could not be verified from published sources (see the presidents section note).
Leah Gaskin Fitchue was inaugurated as head of Payne Theological Seminary on November 10, 2004 — the first African-American woman president of a seminary affiliated with the Association of Theological Schools, and the first woman president of Payne itself. She came to the post from Hampton University, where she had been a professor of religious studies, after a career in public-school teaching and educational consulting. Her inauguration arrived when the historically Black school faced financial and enrollment challenges; she told the Dayton Daily News she was confident in Payne's future because an institution that had kept itself alive for that long had to have something right operating inside it.
During the 2010 Founder's Week at Payne Theological Seminary, a year-long 200th anniversary celebration of Bishop Daniel Alexander Payne's birth (born 1811 in Charleston, South Carolina) was launched. The commemoration included a five-city tour stopping in the cities that shaped Payne's life, including his hometown of Charleston. The celebration honored Payne not only as the seminary's namesake but as the first Black college president in America, an author of the first comprehensive history of the AME Church (1891), and the architect of compulsory ministerial education in the denomination.
The seminary announced the appointment of Michael Joseph Brown as its next president in December 2016; he had been serving as academic dean and interim president since 2015. Brown came from Emory University, where he was an associate professor of New Testament and Christian origins, and before that an associate dean at Wabash College. A Vanderbilt graduate with an M.Div. and Ph.D. from the University of Chicago, he was the author of four books including Blackening of the Bible: The Aims of African American Biblical Scholarship (2004). At the time of his appointment, Payne enrolled 189 students in Master of Divinity and Doctor of Ministry programs.
On Friday, November 3, 2023 — a day set aside to remember the life and legacy of Daniel Alexander Payne — Bishop Gregory G. M. Ingram vested the Rev. Dr. Michael J. Brown with the authority of the president of Payne Theological Seminary on behalf of the Board of Trustees at Mt. Vernon Avenue AME Church in Columbus, Ohio. The investiture was framed by three days of events: a gala dinner on Thursday, a symposium and Eucharist service on the day itself, and a capstone breakfast on Saturday, November 4.
In December 2025, the Rev. Dr. Michael J. Brown died while in office, closing a decade of leadership that began when he arrived as academic dean in 2015. The same year brought a major institutional milestone: Payne joined Howard University School of Divinity's 'Wisdom Keepers, Hope Seekers' initiative, a national collaboration of seven historically Black theological institutions backed by a $10 million Lilly Endowment grant — one of the most significant recent investments in Black theological education, focused on intergenerational leadership, digital innovation, and economic sustainability.
In early 2026, at a Board of Trustees meeting chaired by Bishop Stafford J. N. Wicker, the Rev. Dr. Betty W. Holley was elected the 18th President of Payne Theological Seminary. She had served as interim president and academic dean during President Brown's leave of absence. A Payne M.Div. graduate (with a BA from Bennett College, M.Ed. from UNC, and Ph.D. from Union Institute), she had made history in 2022 as the first African American woman elected chair of the ATS Commission on Accrediting board. On May 8, 2026, the seminary held its 133rd Commencement Ceremony at Phillips Temple Church in Trotwood, Ohio, with Bishop Wicker delivering the commencement address.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
No Greek-letter organizations. Payne Theological Seminary is a free-standing graduate seminary of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Wilberforce, Ohio — graduate seminaries do not host undergraduate-style Greek life. Alumni (e.g., Bishop Silvester Beaman) hold memberships in Divine Nine organizations from their undergraduate years, but no Payne-based chapter records exist.
Still digging this up — check back soon.
The seminary purchased the homestead of Rev. John G. and Fannie A. Mitchell for $8,500 and dedicated the campus on September 20, 1892. The site in Wilberforce, Ohio — 1230 Wilberforce-Clifton Rd., Wilberforce, OH 45384 — remains the seminary's home today, a rural-fringe campus in Greene County.
Dean Rembert E. Stokes saw the long-sought administration building through to completion during his 1951–1956 deanship, giving the seminary its first purpose-built administrative home. Stokes had made new construction a priority from his arrival, alongside the accreditation push.
Stokes commissioned experts to design and install nine stained-glass windows in the Chapel of the Living Savior — five depicting Biblical heroes (Jesus, Moses, Amos, St. Paul, and Martin Luther) and four honoring AME heroes (Wesley, Wilberforce, Allen, and Payne). The windows are acclaimed for their conceptual and artistic design and remain the chapel's signature feature. The chapel now also serves as the congregational home of Holy Trinity AME Church.
Dean Charles S. Spivey, Jr. completed a decade of fundraising (1957–1967) that furnished both the academic building and the Chapel of the Living Savior, turning the shells completed under Stokes into fully equipped spaces for teaching and worship.
The seminary's Media Room announced Payne's Social Justice Certificate Program, a formal credential rooted in the school's liberation-theology identity — preparing clergy to carry social-justice ministry as a defined discipline, not just a pulpit theme.
Payne's Doctor of Ministry program expanded its virtual footprint, exemplified by the January 27, 2025 D.Min Intensive Virtual Opening Worship (guest preacher Elder Norman Harris, M.Div., J.D.) — a sign of the seminary's hybrid model reaching students who cannot relocate to Wilberforce.
Payne joined six other historically Black theological institutions in the Howard University School of Divinity-led 'Wisdom Keepers, Hope Seekers' initiative, backed by a $10 million Lilly Endowment grant. The partnership targets digital and online theological innovation, intergenerational leadership development, and economic sustainability — the largest recent investment in Black theological education.
The seminary's library maintains the Payne Theological Seminary and A.M.E. Church Archive: 76 collections holding more than 20,000 objects and 190,000 pages of documents and images — nationalist publications, local newspaper reports, personal papers, UN documents, out-of-print books, and interviews with participants in the struggles — organized into twenty-one thematic categories for studying AME and Black church history.
Payne's faculty has historically punched above its size: the February 1955 bulletin lists a roster including Dean Rembert E. Stokes (practical theology), Wayman Thomas (Old Testament), Charles W. Gilton (religious education), Ulysses A. Hughey (historical theology), Isaac Clarke (systematic theology), Rabbi Norman Diamond (biblical theology), guest professor Wayne W. Witte (Princeton Th.D.), and Casper Leroy Jordan (librarian). Notably, the future 87th AME bishop John Hurst Adams taught New Testament at Payne, the 67th bishop Joseph Gomez served on its faculty, and John William Porter Collier, Jr. — later the AME Secretary of Missions — taught the rural church. Governance follows the AME connectional model: the seminary is governed by a Board of Directors of bishops, general officers, and annual-conference representatives, with financial support anchored in the First Educational Area.
Former academic dean and interim president; Payne M.Div. alumna; first African American woman chair of the ATS Commission on Accrediting board (2022).
137th elected AME bishop; Presiding Prelate of the Third Episcopal District (Ohio, West Virginia, Western Pennsylvania). Delivered the 133rd commencement address in May 2026.
Senior faculty voice of the seminary; featured in the filmed conversation 'The Ecumenical Hermeneutics of Bishop Vinton R. Anderson' alongside Anderson's widow.
Payne is a small, graduate-only community — under 200 students, most of them working clergy or second-career ministry candidates — on a quiet rural campus shared in spirit with neighboring Wilberforce University. Campus life is chapel-centered rather than quad-centered: convocation, lectures, intensive worship weeks, and the D.Min intensives set the rhythm. There is on-campus housing (dorm capacity around 32) and the seminary's own library, but no undergraduate-style student activities; formation here means preaching labs, pastoral theology, and the daily discipline of a seminary built for the Black church.