Mosby, who served Fellowship Covenant for nearly three decades, struggled with diabetes for a number of years and had been recuperating following amputation surgery in February.
There will be a viewing from 3 to 7 p.m. on Monday, November 26, at Fellowship Covenant Church located at 720 Castle Hill Avenue in Bronx. Immediately following the viewing will be an informal time of reflection, prayer and song, says Howard Burgoyne, superintendent of the East Coast Conference of the Evangelical Covenant Church (ECC) who has been assisting the family with arrangements.
On Tuesday, November 27, a home-going service will be celebrated at 11 a.m. at the church, with burial later in Westchester, New York. A number of clergy representatives will be involved, including Burgoyne and David Kersten, executive minister of the Department of the Ordered Ministry. All East Coast Conference pastors also have been invited to be present, with robes, for what has become the traditional processional and recessional tribute to their fallen ministry comrade.
One of Mosby’s final contributions was a week-long series of meditations that he wrote for the current issue of Covenant Home Altar – in one of the devotionals he talks about a future day when he will walk in God’s garden of peace and joy. To read the complete series of meditations, please visit Covenant Home Altar.
Mosby was born in Norfolk, Virginia, on December 11, 1947, and was raised by his grandparents, Deacon and Deaconess Jerry Mosby of Lambert’s Point, Virginia. “His grandparents were great spiritual church leaders who raised him in a Christian home,” notes a special commemorative brochure as part of a 50th birthday celebration in honor of Mosby and his ministry.
Following the death of his grandfather, he collected and redeemed glass bottles until he had saved up the $13 needed for passage to New York City, where he completed high school while working in the Bronx candy store owned by his aunt and uncle. He attended Fashion Industries High School majoring in fashion and interior decorating and the Fashion Institute of Technology.
He served in the U.S. Air Force as a medic and assistant chaplain, and later served on the decorating staff of the White House during the administration of President Carter.
Feeling a call to ministry, Mosby completed studies at New York Theological Seminary and was called in to pastor Immanuel Covenant Church, now known as Fellowship Covenant Church. He received a Master’s of Divinity degree from New York Theological Seminary and a Doctor of Ministry in Urban Studies.
During his time at Fellowship Covenant, the congregation increased from the original 15 members to some 1,600 congregants, according to local church records.
“Rev. Jerry Mosby has been a major influence in our denomination,” said ECC President Glenn Palmberg. “He has helped attract other pastors to the denomination and when the history of the church is written, it will be shown that he has been a major influence in our goals of accurately representing God’s kingdom.”
Palmberg’s assessment is shared by others, including Burgoyne who says that “when the history of the African American Ministers Association (AAMA) is told, he and pastor Willie Jemison will be considered pioneers among African American pastors in the Covenant, especially in urban ministry.”
The story of Fellowship Covenant is similar to that of Oakdale Covenant in Chicago where Jemison served as senior pastor until his retirement, Burgoyne says. Mosby succeeded well-known Covenant pastor G. Dewey Sands as pastor of Fellowship Covenant, located in a formerly Anglo neighborhood that had transitioned over the years.
“Jerry played a significant role in New York City, especially in the struggle for social justice,” Burgoyne says, noting Mosby was active and well known in the New York City scene.
Pastor Jemison noted that he and Mosby talked often – two or three times a week – for many years. “We tried to lay a foundation for others to come along,” he explains.
In early Annual and Midwinter meetings, when they were the only African American pastors, they would sit in back and respond to the speaker with affirmations “come on now” or “That’s right, preach it!” Jemison recalls. “People would ask, ‘Who’s that?’ and someone would say, ‘Oh, that’s Willie and Jerry,’ ” Jemison says with a chuckle.
“He was very forthwith,” Jemison says of Mosby. “You always knew where you stood. That made for a good friendship. We could say what we thought. We knew we could work through anything. He was aggressive, but you don’t achieve any success without that kind of attitude.”
Mosby served as the first president of the African American Ministers Association. “He was the one who had a vision for the pastors coming into the Covenant, to get together to talk about this new life we were entering into,” says AAMA’s current president, Catherine Gilliard.
“We are so indebted to visionary people like him because they see so far down the road.”
The organization has grown even beyond the initial vision, Gilliard notes. “We now equip pastors, and we help new African American churches and the broader denomination to understand each other so that we’re better together without losing the identity of either.”
“Please join in prayer for Sandra and their children in these days of grief, and for the congregation at Fellowship Covenant, who have been pastored by Jerry for so many years,” said Burgoyne. “Pray also for the congregation in this time of grief and transition.”
Additional details will be published in this online Covenant news report as they become available.
