Bishop Eric Garner

The Presiding Bishop

Bishop Eric Daniel Garner received Christ at the young age of eleven. Growing up in a Christian home he learned how to worship and praise God from a young and tender beginning. He is the living epitome of the scripture, Train up the child in the way he should grow so when he is old he will not depart. Proverbs 22:6

Bishop Garner holds a Bachelor of Arts Degree in History and Sociology from Howard University, a Masters Degree in Religious Education from Nazarene Seminary, as well as a Doctor of Philosophy Degree in Ecclesiology and Episcopacy from Stafford University in London, England. Bishop Garner is also the recipient of four honorary degrees from various Universities in the United States and the United Kingdom.

Prior to Bishop Garner’s present responsibility as Senior Pastor for the Cathedral of Praise Ministries, he served the Church of God in Christ, headquartered in Memphis, Tennessee. His gift for planning and organizing has been beneficial to the Body of Christ across denominational barriers. Bishop Garner organized the UCCC, and serves as the leader of that denomination. He  then became the Metropolitan Archbishop of  the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops’ Congress, which is an organization designed to train and prepare Pentecostal Bishops in their roles as episcopates.

In 2019, Bishop Garner was elected to the office of Senior Bishop of the United Covenant Churches of Christ, and continues to teach and mentor pastors and bishops throughout the United States in the areas of leadership and churchmanship.

Bishop Garner  shares the pastorate of Cathedral of Praise Ministries  with Elder Mike Smith. He was joined together in unity with, Brianna (Smith) Garner,  to whom he has been married since 2018.  He is the father to three children.

In this season, we celebrate a turning point in the life and ministry of United. It is a season of fresh fire, fresh vision, and fresh faith! Moses has brought us out, and Joshua will take us in - into a place of promise, expansion, growth, and the development! The bishops, overseers, pastors and the congregations of UNITED are excited about the opportunities, possibilities and the promises that are before us. Bishop Eric D. Garner has written the vision, made it plain - we can read it, we can understand it, and we can run with it. Bishop Garner and the Assistant Presiding Prelate, Bishop Franklin Burke, are our 21st Century Caleb ( Numbers 13:30, The Message)