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Rev. Dr. Silvester Scott Beaman is a native of Niagara Falls, New York. He is a B.S. graduate of Wilberforce University and a Master’s of Divinity graduate of Boston University. He was the first to receive a Doctorate of Ministry degree from Payne Theological Seminary, Wilberforce, Ohio, and Bakke Graduate University, Seattle, Washington joint seminary program.
Dr. Beaman's pastoral career began at Bethel A.M.E. Church in Lackawanna, New York, in 1985. In 1986, he was appointed to the historic St. Paul A.M.E. Church in Hamilton, Bermuda. On May 30, 1993, he was appointed to Bethel A.M.E. Church in Wilmington, Delaware during which over 2,700 new members joined.
​Dr. Beaman has served as the Director on numerous community and national boards, organizations, governmental task forces, and commissions. He is the past President of the Interdenominational Ministerial Action Council of Wilmington, Delaware. He has been inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers at Morehouse College in Atlanta, Georgia. He is also a member of the Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, and Prince Hall Mason Star of the East Lodge #1 and was awarded the highest honor as a Delaware citizen, with the "First Order of the State Award." He is one of a few clergy persons in the nation who has offered prayer in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.
Dr. Beaman was honored to be asked by President Joseph Biden to offer the benediction at the January 20, 2021, Presidential Inauguration of Joseph R. Biden and Vice President Kamala Harris. On September 26, 2023, President Biden announced the establishment of a 12-member President's Advisory Council on African Diaspora Engagement in the United States and named Bishop Beaman as the Council Chair.
On July 11, 2021, during the General Conference, Dr. Beaman was elected and consecrated as the 139th Bishop of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Orlando, Florida. His current assignment is the 15th AME Episcopal District (Namibia, Angola, Boland, Eastern Cape, Queenstown, Cape, and Kalahari Annual Conferences) of South Africa. During the 2024 General Conference, Bishop Beaman was assigned to serve as Presiding Prelate for the 12th Episcopal District (Arkansas and Oklahoma).
He is married to his childhood sweetheart and best friend, Renée Palmore Beaman, RN. They are the blessed parents of two adult daughters, Asaiah (Gregory Fisher) and Kori (Walter Cheatham), and four grandchildren, Maliah, Gabrielle, Gregory Mason, and Kai.