Warner H. Brown, Jr.
Bishop Brown was born and raised an only child in Baltimore, Maryland, the son of Ina and Warner Brown. At the age of thirteen, while reading the New Testament, he felt a call to serve. At first he did not see himself working in the church; but he began preaching as a youth, and was encouraged to continue doing so. As a young adult, he worked with the Baltimore Public Schools Neighborhood Youth Corps; then while attending the University of Maryland, he was a Resident Assistant (he graduated from there with a B.A. in Sociology in 1969.) He also worked as a marketing and sales associate for a heating company, when the ordained ministry finally called with clarity.
In 1973 Warner was ordained a Deacon in the Baltimore Annual Conference, and graduated from Wesley Seminary in 1974. Yet his movement west had already begun with a pastoral appointment in the Western Pennsylvania Annual Conference as both pastor of a church and Director of Bethany House Ministries in Pittsburgh, a social service ministry for two housing projects. While serving in Pennsylvania, he was ordained an Elder in the United Methodist Church. Then in 1979, he answered a national search for an associate conference staff position in the California-Nevada Conference, and transferred there: he admits that upon leaving Pennsylvania, he "joyfully threw the snow shovel in the trash." Once in California, it was only six months later that internal staff changes opened the door to his stepping up to serve as Conference Council Director.
From this role of program and administrative oversight for the Conference, Bishop Brown was appointed just four years later to the Superintendency of the Golden Gate District, the richly diverse area around San Francisco. Then again after only four years, he was given the charge of the Taylor Memorial U.M.C. in Oakland, California. Leading a significant turn-around with the congregation, the community was then assaulted by the Loma Prieta earthquake and the subsequent holocaust of fires in Oakland: as chairperson of the Oakland Inter-religious Network for responding to this disaster, Warner led the community's ecumenical disaster response.
Throughout these years, Bishop Brown has been active in the social justice ministries and programs of those communities and church connections where he has been appointed. To list but a sampling: Volunteer Police Chaplain, Trustee of the Glide Foundation, vice-chair of the Community Advisory Commission for Alameda County Medical Center, member of the Governing Board of United Way for Kern County, a member of the Board of Directors for the Bakersfield Homeless Shelter, recipient of the 1996 Outstanding Leadership and Service Award for Emergency Response Ministries, given by UMCOR, and recipient of a 1998 Congressional Commendation from Congresswoman Barbara Lee.
Bishop Brown's leadership in the church has been extensive: a delegate to General Conference twice, a member of the General Commission on Religion and Race, a faculty member for New DS/CCD training, a Harry Hoosier Member of and twice the host for the Black Methodists for Church Renewal, chair of the Board of Missions in California-Nevada as well as numerous other conference boards and agencies, adjunct consultant to the Alban Institute, and a Wesley Seminary Distinguished Alumni.
Following a successful eleven year pastorate in Oakland, Warner was given a new challenge as Senior Pastor of the predominantly white yet rapidly changing First U.M.C. of Bakersfield, California. Only two years into this pastorate, he was nominated and endorsed by his conference for the episcopacy: at the Western Jurisdiction Conference Sessions in Casper, Wyoming in July, he was elected on the 19th ballot.
Bishop Brown is married to Minnie Jones Brown; their family includes Catina Marie Harvin, Warner III and Calvin Brown. They enjoy sports, with the boys actively involved at the high school level, and the parents cheering from the stands.