The Reverend Dr. Dwight Bernard Cannon was born to the late Charlie and the late Yvonne Cannon in Snow Hill, North Carolina. Dr. Cannon contributes his spiritual and religious development to his parents, grandparents and members of the Salisbury A.M.E. Zion Church in Faro, North Carolina.
Dr. Cannon has served the people of the Lord in the A.M.E. Zion Church vineyard supplying Miller’s Chapel in Elroy; pastored St. Thomas in Bowden; St. Joseph in Fremont; St. Paul in Dudley; St. James in Snow Hill; New Elder's Chapel in Kenansville; Slade’s Chapel in Morganton; Unity in Gastonia; all in North Carolina and the Brown Community Church in East St. Louis, Illinois. In 1997, Dr. Cannon was appointed Resident Missionary, Presiding Elder and pastor in Africa, Spottswood A.M.E. Zion Church in the Republic of South Africa until 2004.
Upon his return to America, he supplied St. Mark in Whitesville, NC; pastored St. James in Goldsboro, NC and Wesley in Burlington, NJ.
After graduating Greene Central High School in Snow Hill NC in 1984, Dr. Cannon continued his education at Livingstone College, majoring in Psychology; Brookstone College in Charlotte; received an Associate of Arts Degree from Metropolitan College in East St. Louis and graduated with honors from the University of South Africa in Pretoria, South Africa with a Bachelor of Arts Degree in Religious & Biblical Studies.
In 2012, he graduated Magna Cum Laude from Hood Theological Seminary in Salisbury, NC with a Master of Divinity Degree.
Dr. Cannon has served as an accountant and Assistant to the Editor and Writer for the Department of Church School Literature and the Department of Evangelism.
In 2004, he served as Bishop’s Administrative Assistant to Bishop Richard K. Thompson in South Africa and Zimbabwe. In 2012, he served as the late Bishop James E. McCoy’s Emissary to India and the administrative assistant to Bishop Roy A. Holmes and Bishop Louis Hunter, Sr. for the Mission Work of India.
Dr. D.B. Cannon was elected in 2016 and re-elected unanimously in 2021 as Executive Director of the Department of Global Missions and Editor-in-Chief for The Missionary Seer.
Dr. Cannon is married to the lovely Belinda Phillips Cannon and to their union they are blessed with two children: Habekah Brittion and Dwight Bernard Cannon, II. They are the doting grandparents of Delilah Noiree Divine Cannon!