BISHOP CLEMENT W. FUGH

Clement Willie Fugh, son of the late Reverend Joseph and Deborah Malone Fugh, is a native of Memphis, Tennessee, where he attended the public elementary and high schools. He continued his education at Memphis State University (BBA in Economics and Finance), Boston University School of Theology (ThM in Pastoral Care), with additional studies at Atlanta University, Payne Theological Seminary, Memphis Theological Seminary, and United Theological Seminary (DMin as an “H. Beecher Hicks Scholar”).

​

Bishop Fugh, an ordained elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME CHURCH), has served as pastor of congregations in Tennessee, Kentucky and Ohio. He led Greater Bethel AME Church, Nashville, TN, in the erection of a state of the art multipurpose worship and service center, fulfilling a thirty year dream of that congregation.

​

At the 46th Quadrennial Session of the General Conference of the AME Church, held in July 2000, he was elected as its 5th General Secretary and Chief Information Officer. At the 49th General Conference, held in 2012, he was elected and consecrated the 131st Bishop of the AME Church. He was assigned general superintendent of the 14th Episcopal District, comprised of seven West African countries. In 2016 he was assigned presiding bishop of the Fifth Episcopal District covering fifteen states from the Mississippi River to the Pacific Ocean.

A member of the World Methodist Council, he attended its quinquennium meeting in Nairobi, Kenya in 1986, its 2006 meeting in Seoul, South Korea, the 2013 Meeting of the Council in London, England, and the quinquennial held in Houston, Texas in 2016.

Among his significant accomplishments are: Secretary, Commission on Worship and Liturgy for the AME Church, which was responsible for producing and publishing the Bicentennial Hymnal and The AME Church Book of Worship; Secretary, Compilation Committee, The Doctrine and Discipline of the AME Church, 1988; Member, Core Strategic Planning Committee for the AME Church; Member, Editing and Correcting Committee, The Doctrine and Discipline of the AME Church, editions 1992, 1996, 2000, 2004, 2008, 2012; Secretary, Board of Trustees, Payne Theological Seminary; Contributor to Liberation and Unity, a COCU sponsored devotional; African American Devotional Bible; The Pastor’s Manual for the Twenty-First Century.

​

Bishop Fugh is married to Alexia Butler Fugh, a registered nurse and Clinical Research Consultant. They are the parents of two adult children, Marcia Fugh Joseph and Joseph Edward Fugh; son-in-law Paul Steven Joseph II; grandparents of a granddaughter, Taylor Joi Joseph, and grandson, Paul Steven Joseph III.