CLEVELAND — The Cleveland community celebrated the life of Bishop J. Delano Ellis II Saturday morning.
Condolences and tributes to Ellis have poured in from far beyond Cleveland with Pentecostal dignitaries from all over the world in attendance at the Saturday service.
“I join with the citizens of the city of Cleveland in mourning the loss of Bishop Ellis,” Pastor Grady Stevenson said.
Earlier this month, a street was named in the Bishop’s honor just two weeks before his death.
“This was a man that gave me my first lesson as to who in the kingdom he was,” Bishop Benjamin Douglass said. “I realized he saw himself not as a dictator, but as a father.”
Bishop Ellis was raised in Philadelphia and attended Howard University.
“A dedicated public leader and devoted husband, father, brother and friend,” Stevenson said.
The Bishop wore many hats, such as writing several books and pamphlets on worship and church order, founding the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops and serving in the United States Air Force.
“We here at PCC can honestly say not only were we blessed to have a tremendous pastor,” Bishop Douglass said. “Not only were we blessed to have a great leader, but we were favored with a shepherd at the heart of God.”
A public viewing for Bishop Ellis will be held Sunday in Memphis, Tennessee before he is laid to rest there Monday.
