Kern, Paul Bentley, 1882-1953

Pastor and bishop for Methodist Episcopal Church, South (1844-1939) and later for the Methodist Church (1939-1968); author and college teacher; b. in Alexandria, Va.; d. Nashville, Tenn.

Paul Bentley Kern was born in Alexandria, Virginia on June 16, 1882 to the Rev. John A. Kern, an educator and ordained Methodist minister, and Margaret Eskridge Kern. Paul Kern studied one year at Randolph-Macon College before transferring to Vanderbilt University, where he earned his B.A. in 1902 and his M.A. and B.D. degrees in 1905. Bishop Elijah Embree Hoss ordained Kern to the office of deacon in 1902. Rev. Paul Kern joined the Tennessee Conference of the Methodist Episcopal Church, South, in 1905 while serving as Assistant Director of Vanderbilt University’s Correspondence School for Ministers.

In 1907 Paul B. Kern married Lucy Gordhall Campbell and was ordained an elder. For the next eight years Rev. Kern served pastoral appointments in Tennessee. When Southern Methodist University opened in 1915, the Kerns moved to Dallas and Paul joined the faculty as professor of English, Bible, and Homiletics. From 1920 to 1926, Kern served as Dean of the SMU School of Theology.

Paul Kern reentered pastoral ministry in 1926, serving the Travis Park Methodist Church in San Antonio until 1930 when he was elected bishop in the Methodist Episcopal Church, South. Bishop Kern actively supported the creation of the Methodist Church in 1939. He served on most of the denomination’s administrative boards and as a delegate to the 1948 World Council of Churches assembly in Amsterdam. Always a dedicated pacifist, Paul B. Kern took public stands in opposition to both WWI and WWII.

Bishop Kern published the following books and pamphlets: A Methodist Church and its Work (with Worth M. Tippy, 1919), The Miracle of the Galilean (1930 SMU Fondren Lecture), The Miracle in Eternity (1935), The Basic Beliefs of Jesus (1935), The Bible in a Time of Confusion (1936), Methodism Has a Message ! (1941), Why I Am a Protestant (1946), and What Methodists Believe: an Official Declaration of the Bishops of The Methodist Church (1952). He received honorary degrees from Randolph Macon Men’s College (D.D., 1919), Duke University (D.D., 1934), Emory University (LL.D., 1936), Ohio Wesleyan University (Litt.D., 1938), Victoria University (Litt.D., 1938), Williamette University (D.H.L., 1945), Emory and Henry College (D.C.L., 1950), and Southern Methodist University (Doctor of Laws, 1952). The SMU citation reads,

Bishop Paul B. Kern retired in 1952. He died on December 16, 1953, in Nashville, Tennessee.

Sources:

Carroll, Grady Lee Ernest, Sr. Paul Bentley Kern: Eminent Churchman . Raleigh, NC: privately printed, 1989.

Harmon, Nolan B., ed. The Encyclopedia of World Methodism . 2 vols. Nashville: United Methodist Pub. House, 1974.

McIntyre, Dean. "Honoring Paul Bentley Kern (1882-1953) On the 125th Anniversary of His Birth June 16, 2007." General Board of Discipleship – The United Methodist Church. http://www.gbod.org/worship/bishoppaulkern.pdf .

For twenty two years Bishop of the Methodist Church, member of the first faculty of this University and one-time Dean of its School of Theology, architect of the educational policy of the former Methodist Episcopal Church, South, and of the United Methodist Church, preacher, author, educator, administrator of the Church.