Zion Chapel Station African Methodist Episcopal Church, 228 Martin Luther King Jr. St., under the leadership of the Rev. Birdon Mitchell Jr. of the Natchez-Port Gibson District, where the Rev. George W. Tyler is the presiding elder, will be hosting, for the first time, the newly aligned South Mississippi Annual Conference.

At the last general conference of the connectional African Methodist Episcopal, the Eighth Episcopal Districts, which consists of the states of Mississippi and Louisiana, conference lines were redrawn. In Mississippi, where there were four conferences, now there are two conferences. The South Mississippi Conference reaches from Sidon in the Mississippi Delta to the Gulf Coast north to south and east to west, at Vicksburg to the Alabama line in Meridian. The South Mississippi Conference consists of 85 churches.

During the week of Sept. 20 through 26, our bishop, the Right Rev. Carolyn Tyler-Guidry will be presiding over the 143rd annual session of the South Mississippi Conference. Bishop Guidry, who was born in Jackson, has come full circle to become the presiding prelate of her home district. She was very instrumental in the election of the first female bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and was the second elected and consecrated female Bishop and the 122nd bishop of the church.

The business session of the Women in Ministry will begin at 5 p.m., Monday, and worship at 7 p.m. All are invited to attend. The Women’s Missionary Society business session will be at 9 a.m. Tuesday, and worship will be at 7 p.m. Wednesday at 10 a.m., all pastors, delegates, members, visitors and friends will be in historic Natchez for the opening session of the 143rd annual conference worship service. The opening worship will be at the Natchez City Auditorium. All are invited to attend!

The Rev. Birdon Mitchell Jr. is the pastor at Zion Chapel African Methodist Episcopal Church.