Leadership
The Presiding Prelate
134th Bishop of the A.M.E. Church · Sixth Episcopal District
“I have not come to be served, but rather to serve.”
The hand of God has been evident on the life of Bishop Michael Leon Mitchell since he was a young child. Born in Perry, Florida, to the late Reverend Arthur L. Mitchell, Sr. and the late Mrs. Mary L. Mitchell, he is the ninth of their fifteen children. A life-long member of the African Methodist Episcopal Church, raised in Jacksonville, Florida, he answered the call to ministry while in high school and preached his trial sermon at the age of seventeen.
In September 1992, he was chosen to succeed the late Bishop Robert V. Webster as pastor of Saint Stephen A.M.E. Church in Jacksonville, where he served faithfully for twenty-four years before being elected the 134th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church at the 50th Quadrennial Session of the General Conference in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
Bishop Mitchell graduated from Wilberforce University in 1982 and received a Master of Divinity from Turner Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center in 1986, and a Doctor of Ministry from United Theological Seminary in Dayton, Ohio, in 2012. In recognition of his ministry and leadership, he was inducted into the Martin Luther King Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College as a member of the 2025 Class. He is a member of Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Incorporated.
With Supervisor Cordelia D. Mitchell, he served faithfully for eight years in the 12th Episcopal District, comprising Arkansas and Oklahoma. Under his leadership the district liquidated the mortgage of the Episcopal Residence, constructed the 12th Episcopal District Headquarters—which also houses Jackson Theological Seminary—and liquidated its mortgage as well. On August 15, 2023, the Bishop M. L. Mitchell Dormitory on the campus of Shorter College was completed.
On August 28, 2024, at the 52nd Quadrennial Session of the General Conference, Bishop Mitchell was assigned to the Sixth Episcopal District. He and Supervisor Mitchell have two daughters, Courtney and Channing, son-in-law Robert Hodges II, and three grandchildren. Believing they have been “Called to Serve this Present Age,” their ministry rests on the words of Jesus, who declared, “I have not come to be served but rather to serve.”
The Presiding Elder
South Atlanta District · Atlanta North Georgia Conference
“Knowing as Nehemiah—‘The God of heaven, He will prosper us’—he led the South District in rebuilding and retooling for the future.”
Presiding Elder Dr. Larry William Hudson, Sr. is a native of Rome, Georgia, where he attended the public elementary and high schools. He is a graduate of Georgia College, Milledgeville, with a Bachelor of Science degree, and earned a Master of Divinity from the Turner Theological Seminary at the Interdenominational Theological Center in Atlanta. An honorary Doctor of Divinity degree was bestowed upon him by Morris Brown College in 2015.
He accepted his call to ministry in 1975 at his home church, Bethel A.M.E. Church in Rome, Georgia. His visionary and perceptive leadership has been demonstrated in every pastoral appointment—Bethel (Woodbury), Bush Chapel (Zebulon), Cleveland Chapel (McDonough), Wesley Chapel (Rock Mart), St. Thomas (Thomasville), Antioch (Decatur), Bethel (Augusta), and St. Mark (Atlanta)—where congregations built, renovated, relocated, and reclaimed their houses of worship under his care.
Reverend Hudson was appointed Presiding Elder of the South District of the Atlanta North Georgia Conference in June 2014, and of the North District in June 2016. In June 2024 he was reappointed to the South District. The North District became a family led by the Holy Spirit, following the “North Star.” Returning to the South District, with the Lord’s guidance, the District will see that The Best Is Yet To Come.
His career in service includes adjunct professorships at Paine College and Voorhees College, and years as a teacher, counselor, and assistant director with the State of Georgia’s Department of Children and Youth Services. He served in the Armed Services during the Vietnam era. He has worked diligently to help save and restore Morris Brown College, and served the A.M.E. Church at the Connectional level on the Episcopal Committee from 1996 to 2024. In 2019 he was elected an At-Large member of the Connectional Presiding Elders’ Council.
Presiding Elder Hudson serves as Treasurer and Trustee of the Sixth Episcopal District. He previously served as Treasurer of the Trustee Board of Turner Theological Seminary until 2026, and served on the Connectional Presiding Elders’ Council until 2026. He has been married to Barbara Clayton Hudson for more than fifty years, and is the father of three children, grandfather of eleven, and great-grandfather of one.
District Officers
The work of the District is carried by its officers and ministry directors—the men and women who steward education, evangelism, stewardship, and the life of the congregations between conferences.
“Twenty-four pulpits, one mind, one Lord. The South Atlanta District walks together because that is the only way the church has ever walked at all.”