New pastor of Tallahassee’s Bethel AME Church comes with local ties
For the first time in 16 years, a new senior pastor will lead the congregation at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church in Tallahassee.
On Friday, Bishop Marvin C. Zanders II, who oversees the AME Church's 11th Episcopal District, which includes Florida and the Bahamas, appointed the Rev. Michael B. Price as the 36th pastor and senior minister of the church at 501 W. Orange Ave.
Price succeeds Bishop Julius H. McAllister, Jr. , who served as senior pastor at Bethel before his election and consecration in August as the 144th Bishop of the AME Church during the 52nd Quadrennial Session of the General Conference in Columbus, Ohio.
McAllister is now the Presiding Prelate of over 300 AME churches in Alabama.
The appointment of Price, a native of Havana, Florida, was made Friday during the 2024 Planning Meeting for the Eleventh Episcopal District hosted by St. Paul AME Church in Jacksonville.
Zanders will introduce Price to the Bethel congregation at 9 a.m. Sunday where Price will deliver his first sermon.
Price most recently served as pastor and senior minister of Greater Grant Memorial AME Church in Jacksonville.
Price graduated from Havana Northside High School in 1989, according to an online report Friday by The Christian Recorder, the official newspaper of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.
He earned a Bachelor of Science in Elementary Education from the University of Central Florida in 2002 and a Master of Divinity from Asbury Theological Seminary in 2010.
Price, who was elected and ordained an Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church at the Florida Annual Conference in 1998, has led several congregations in Florida over the past 20 years, the publication reported.
Among them are: New Bethel AME Church, Sanford; Allen Chapel AME Church, New Smyrna Beach, and Victory AME Church in Tampa.
Price and his wife, Seleste Brown Price, are the parents of three children.
Byron Dobson can be reached at bdobson@tallahassee.com . Follow him on X: @byrondobson.
This article originally appeared on Tallahassee Democrat: Pastor of Tallahassee Bethel AME Church, Michael Price, has local ties
