Bishops Get Their Due

When Dinah Kinney got pregnant at 16, her pastor didn’t give up on her. He rallied the church behind her.

Kinney joined dozens of current and past congregants (pictured above) of Newhallville’s Mount Hope Temple in City Hall to testify to how the pastor — and his successor — helped so many people build better lives.

They showed up Tuesday night in the aldermanic chambers to support a bill by Alder Brenda Foskey-Cyrus to rename the intersection of Dixwell Avenue and Thompson Street ​“Bishop Jeremiah Covington and Bishop John C. Wright Corner” in order ​“to honor the life and legacy of two great pillars in Newhallville.” Some 650 supporters signed a petition in favor of the proposal.

The Board of Alders City Services and Environmental Policy Committee voted to approve the proposal, directing that two signs be erected, one with Wright’s name, the other with Covington’s, for a single $250 sign fee. The matter now goes before the full Board of Alders for expected passage.

Covington served as Mount Hope’s pastor from 1950 until his death in 1990. At that point his son-in-law, Wright, took over as pastor. Wright retired this Jan. 1, and remains active in the congregation.

Before voting, the committee heard a series of citizens offer testimony about the two bishops. They spoke of Covington’s active role in the civil rights movement and in the rebuilding of Newhallville. They spoke of how both Covington and Wright inspired people to pursue Christian lives and supported other congregations’ development. ​“Loving,” the pastors were called — ​“not about the show,” but ​“great men not only of god, but great men of the community.”

Kinney described how she was a high school sophomore when she gave birth, and ​“Bishop Covington never stopped believing in me. He pushed me harder.” He told the congregation after she graduated high school that “‘when Dinah goes to law school’ — not if I go to law school — ​‘this church will give her $1,000.’” Kinney did go to law school. Covington had passed away by then; under Wright the congregation kept the promise.

Today she is not only an attorney, but the spouse of Mount Hope Temple’s new interim pastor, Robert Kinney (pictured above with her). He told the alders Tuesday night that he knows he has big shoes to fill.

650 signatures