State and Regional News

Birmingham evangelist Bishop Jasper Roby dies

Associated Press
04-02-2006

BIRMINGHAM— Bishop Jasper Roby, an evangelist and former head of a Birmingham-based Pentecostal denomination, has died. He was 93. Roby’s career included building a megachurch, the AOH Cathedral, in downtown Birmingham. Roby died Tuesday in a Birmingham hospital, his family announced Friday. A funeral will be at 11 a.m. Tuesday at Abyssinia Baptist Church in Ensley. A Brooksfield, Miss. native who grew up in De-mopolis, Roby became senior bishop of the Apostolic Overcoming Holy Church of God in 1973, taking over the denomination after the death of the founder, Bishop W.T. Phillips. Roby later moved the church headquarters from Mobile to the AOH Cathedral in Birmingham. His sermons aired on several Birmingham radio stations for more than 40 years and on WBRC-TV for eight years. “I think the most important thing he accomplished was that he was a passionate pastor and evangelist for the city,” said his son, Robert Roby. On April 12, the city of Birmingham will erect commemorative street signs in honor of Bishop Roby at 12th Avenue North and 21st Street at the end of Carraway Boulevard and at 12th Avenue North and 24th Street.