BISHOP FRANK A. WHITE
From Cradle to Congregation: A Lifelong Ministry
Bishop Frank A. White has the unique distinction of pastoring the very church into which he was born and raised. Therefore, numbered among the 97-year-old congregation of 1,500 are people who were his babysitters and Sunday School teachers. “It is such an honor to pastor the church where you were born,” he says. “The beauty and privilege of this are not lost on me.”
Bishop White entered the ministerial team of the church in 1998 and assumed leadership as Senior Pastor in 2017 after his father transitioned. Since then, he has guided the church with a mission-centered vision. “We are primarily a mission ministry catering to the day-to-day needs of our beloved community,” he explains. The church’s outreach includes food distribution, assistance with housing and heating, and other services that reflect the traditional meaning of mission: to feed, clothe, and shelter. Yet with more than 45 fully operational ministries, the church ministers to the whole person.
Under the umbrella of the Cedarmore Corporation, where Bishop White serves as CEO, the church has been offering educational, social, and emotional development programs for youth across the New York metropolitan area for the past 27 years. These include the Afterschool Enrichment Program, the Big Brothers Summer Basketball Tournament, the award-winning Young Entrepreneurs Program, and the Ready Set Know Interactive Instruction Platform, which focuses on personal development, self-esteem, goal-setting, and relationships.
Programs such as Boys to Men and Girls Talk Program use the Hofstra University campus several times a year to help young people navigate social issues, relationship challenges, entrepreneurship, and even AI literacy. In one young adult program, participants are required to complete a full business plan by the end of the course. At the height of the pandemic, the church opened the Bishop Frank O. White Digital Literacy Center, designed to bridge the digital divide in the black and brown community. There, young
