6 Florida United Methodist Review Online

News in Brief

School built, building named in Henderson’s memory

By Michael Wacht

LAKELAND — The late Bishop Cornelius L. Henderson’s commitment to children and education is being honored by two institutions on opposite ends of the world.

In Tsalala, Mozambique, Africa, a school being built at the Tsalala Orphanage complex will be named in memory of Henderson and his wife, Dorothye. The project is being done through the Council of Bishop’s Initiative on Children and Poverty and Hope for the Children of Africa.

In Atlanta, the student center at Clark Atlanta University, Henderson’s alma mater, will also bear the late bishop’s name.

The Florida Conference task force for the Bishops’ Initiative and Hope campaign and Joao Somane Machado, resident bishop of the United Methodist Church’s Mozambique area, decided to name the school the Bishop Cornelius L. and Dorothye Henderson School.

The cost to build it is $250,000, nearly half of a $475,000 goal the Florida Conference was asked to raise for the Hope initiative. The denomination-wide goal for Hope is $12 million.

"This project [school] is a way in which we can honor the bishop for his commitment to children, the church and evangelization on a global scale," said the Rev. Anne Burkholder, superintendent of the Melbourne District and the Florida Conference Cabinet’s coordinator for the Hope for Children initiative.

The conference has established a fund to collect the memorial gifts, all of which will go toward building the school.

Although the conference has until 2004 to raise the total amount, Burkholder she would like to see it collected by the 2001 annual conference event.

The Rev. Keith Ewing, the late bishop’s administrative assistant, announced at the Dec. 14 memorial service in Lakeland that the conference is also collecting a love offering for Henderson’s wife, Dorothye.

During Henderson’s Dec. 12 funeral service in Atlanta, Dr. Thomas W. Cole, president of Clark Atlanta University, said the executive committee of the school’s board of trustees voted Dec. 11 to name the student center after Henderson.

"Bishop Henderson reminded me of the words of William Shakespeare in Julius Caesar, ‘He was the noblest Roman of them all,’ " Cole said. "We’re all better because Bishop Henderson touched our lives."

Donations for the Henderson School and love offerings for Dorothye Henderson should be mailed to the Florida Conference Center at P.O. Box 3767, Lakeland, FL 33802. Checks should be made to Florida Conference Treasurer and include "Bishop Henderson Memorial" or "Love Offering for Mrs. Henderson" in the memo line.

Fraternity brothers salute Henderson

By Michael Wacht

ATLANTA — Nearly 70 members of Alpha Phi Alpha fraternity joined Ozell Sutton, the fraternity’s 26th general president, in saluting the late Cornelius L. Henderson, their brother and bishop of the Florida Conference, at Henderson’s wake service Dec. 11 at Atlanta’s Donald Trimble Mortuary.

Henderson died Dec. 7 from multiple myeloma, a cancer of the plasma cells. He joined the fraternity while studying at Clark University here.

With songs, laughter and tears, the men celebrated Henderson’s life and membership in what they call the "Omega Chapter" of the fraternity, referring to Revelation 22:13, in which Jesus says he is "the Alpha and the Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end."

"A man has nothing to say about when he is born…or what color he is born. That’s the prerogative of God. A man has nothing to say about when he will die," Sutton said. "The space in between those two periods belong to him. This brother [Henderson] utilized that space so beautifully all of his time."

Fraternity brother Albenny Price said Henderson had been a father to him since they first met him at a church revival in Mississippi. "He helped me chart a career and my civic activities," he said. "Doc, I called Bishop Henderson Doc, had an extraordinary knack for understanding what you need and finding a way to get it."

Price said Henderson trained him to be a preacher and taught him how to love all of God’s children. "I hope my dad is proud," he said.