The October monthly Prayer Call-in Service of the A.M.E. Zion International Ministers’ Spouses & Widow(ers) Fellowship experienced a Prayer Call-in Service unlike ever before. We shared a Spirit-filled celebrative Prayer Service on October 16, 2023. It was indeed uniquely different as we celebrated the Life, Love, and Legacy of the Rev. Lula G. Williams, (pictured) second president of our Fellowship.
August 3, 2023, The A.M.E. Zion International Ministers’ Spouses & Widow(ers) Fellowship reached fifty-two (52) years of age with uninterrupted service in Zion Methodism. We rejoiced considering the prime blessing that our second president, the Rev. Lula G. Williams, is still actively and productively fellowshipping with us. It was an exceptionally significant occasion blessed by God.
Our historical gears shifted into high as we remembered that when our Founder, Mrs. Beulah Crockett, had with great concern noted the sparsity of fellowship among the minister’s wives and widows in our beloved Zion and had determined to ‘do something about it’. Miss Beulah, believing in the necessary protocol, first talked with her husband, Rev. J. W. Crockett, to receive his blessings and then those of her Episcopal leader, Bishop Stephen Gill Spottswood. Having begun things decently and in order, Mrs. Crockett then shared her organization-birthing proclivities with fellow A.M.E. Zion wives and widows who attended the WH&OM Convention in Buffalo, NY. Miss Beulah suggested an official meeting be held. Missionary Supervisors, in support of Miss Beulah’s idea for an organization, met with spouses in their areas to garner support.
It is here that our honoree comes on the scene as she offers her home for the meeting. Mrs. Lula Williams’ husband, Rev. Milton Williams, was pastor of The Shaw Memorial A.M.E. Zion Church in Buffalo, NY, and was hosting the Convention. It was of a surety that Miss Beulah Crockett was operating under the influence of a Holy unction. Great interest was indicated by the copious number of wives and widows who filled Mrs. Williams’s home. It became the delivery room for Miss Beulah’s Baby, the “National A.M.E. Zion Minister’s Wives Fellowship.” During the second meeting in May 1972, Beulah M. Crockett was elected president of the National A.M.E. Zion Ministers’ & Widows Fellowship.
Rev. Lula Williams continued working with the Fellowship and, in 1986, was elected the second president of the Fellowship. She guided the organization, round by round, with meticulously creative and dynamic leadership. It was in 1988 that Rev. Lula’s beloved husband, Rev. Milton A. Williams, Sr., was elevated as 82nd Bishop of the A.M.E. Zion Church. This, of course, interrupted his Spouses’ tour of duty as president of the Fellowship. There is an uncontested concept that Rev. Lula G. Williams is the only Missionary Supervisor to serve as president of the A.M.E. Zion National Ministers’ Wives and Widows Fellowship, albeit for a very short time.
Fast forwarding to the evening of October 16, 2023. The International Ministers’ Spouses & Widow(ers) Fellowship Prayer Call-in Service used the Theme, “Celebrating the Life and Legacy of The Rev. Lula Williams with Prayer.” Some eighty-plus Spouses and Widow(ers) gathered across Zion Methodism via Zoom and telephone to share in this celebration with prayer for the 2nd president of our treasured Fellowship.
A great attempt was made to involve persons in this Prayer Service who had served with Rev. Lula and Bishop Milton Williams during their tour of duty as Presiding Prelate and Missionary Supervisor. The president of the International Ministers’ Spouses & Widow(ers) Fellowship, Rev. Robin Stitt, and Rev. Michele Long, Spiritual Life Chair, presented our honoree, Rev. Lula G. Williams. Persons sharing their gifts and talents in this August event were Rev. Margaret Anderson, Mrs. Pat Smoke, Rev. Ruby Miles, Mrs. Geraldine Walker, Mrs. Rosa Randall, Mrs. Lovetta Holmes, Mrs. Barbara Carr, Mrs. Georgia Thompson, Rev. Mamie Maize Cooper, Mrs. Margaret Brown Jackson, Mrs. Aurelia Brown, Mrs. Ava Morrow, Rev. Esther Rose, Rev. George Maize, III, Rev. Andrea Wiley and J. Fairbanks Leach. Each prayer offered was void of asking God for anything. Instead, each petitioner prayed fervent, heart-warming prayers full of thanks for God’s goodness, mercy, and grace. The beautifully rendered solos spoke to the honoree’s Christian profile and personality. One solo epitomized Rev. Williams’ life, “May the Work I’ve Done Speak for Me.” The prayers and musical renditions in succession were like the stoking of a fireplace whereon a log has been placed. When the time came for “A Dialogue with The Rev. Lula G. Williams,” she briefly registered her surprise as she was not fully aware of the true course of this Prayer Service. Shortly thereafter, Rev. Williams shifted gears and, with quiet but profound God-imbued synergy, stoked embers burning already on the hearth of our hearts from the prayers and musical renditions. Rev. Williams, with a Spirit-filled dialogue on “Traveling Light,” gave concrete reasons why we should pack only Christian-enhancing items that would give us “Traveling Light” rewards for our journey here on earth. She encouraged us not to carry baggage that would hamper our progression heavenward. Whatever spaces occupied by the virtual body of Spouses and Widow(ers) surely felt the fire radiating from the ‘Traveling Light” fireplace as the airways were replete with Amens, Praise the Lord, and other sanctions of worship. Rev. Williams’ words of wisdom caused many of us to feel the heat, be it comfortable or with a burning sensation in whatever bay we happen to occupy on our Christian journey.
In the book of Isaiah, these words are found . . . “Ah, how beautiful the feet of those on the mountain who declare the good news of victory, of peace and liberation, The voice that calls to Zion, that chosen place for God’s promise people, announcing to them “Your God rules!” The Voice. The prevailing feeling is we were blessed to have sat at the feet of one with a choice calling and beautiful feet if you please. She shared the Word of God in a soul-searching way. Rev. Williams’ message encouraged us Spouses & Widow(ers) to take inventory of our luggage to make sure we don’t try to arrive at St. Peter’s Check-up meeting with our Michael Kors bags crammed with burdens of shame, doubt, envy, self-reliance, untruths, hypocrisy, and many other sins that will have us tendered a slip saying, ‘no admittance’. Rev. Williams impressed upon us that “Jesus Saves.”
We left our Prayer Call-in Service in a mode of thanksgiving, praise, jubilance, and, yes, an insatiable desire to take inventory of our luggage. Kudos and many thanks to our Second President, Rev. Lula G. Williams. We thank God for the privilege of sharing with us a phenomenal woman of God.
Comments
No comments on this item Please log in to comment by clicking here