Elder Brenda Payne
was born in Washington, D.C. to Attorney Eugene McDonald and Mrs. Mary Alice Beckford. Pastor Payne received her undergraduate degree as a registered nurse in 1974 from the Alma Mater of her father and grandfather,
Boston University.
In 1986 she also completed studies in the Master of Divinity program at
Boston University School of Theology,
majoring in Pastoral Counseling.
Pastor Payne accepted the call to the ministry in 1979. She was ordained a Deacon by the African Methodist Episcopal Church in 1982, and ordained an Elder in 1984. In her years of traveling, Pastor Payne has preached throughout the First and Second Episcopal Districts and now in the Tenth Episcopal District. She has served as a member of The New England Annual Conference Board of Examiners; New England Conference Director of Stewardship; and as the Assistant Pastor of the 1,000 member St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Cambridge, Massachusetts.
Pastor Payne is founder of Clear Lake African Methodist Episcopal Church in the Clear Lake City area of Houston, Texas. She has served as the Assistant Pastor of St. James A.M.E. Church, Dickinson; has been a member of the Texas Conference Board of Examiners since 1989; coordinated for two years the South Houston District Retreat; preached numerous revivals and taught in the Houston Women in Ministry city-wide conference.
She is currently pastoring full-time at the the Mother Church of Texas, Reedy Chapel. During her tenure there Pastor Payne has led the renovation of the sanctuary, and the membership is growing spiritually.
Pastor Payne delights in the fellowship of the saints and ministering to the unsaved and downtrodden. She is committed to a life that reflects the words of Paul:
I, therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you
that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye
are called. (Ephesians 4: 1)