The Rev. Patrick Barrett II, a native of Lanham, MD, is the General Secretary-Treasurer of Christian Education in the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church. He is also pastor of the historic Alleyne A.M.E. Zion Church in Alexandria, VA. Rev. Barrett is a 2008 graduate of the University of Maryland, College Park, and a 2014 Master of Divinity graduate from the Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC. In 2015, he was selected as a Lewis Fellow in Wesley’s Lewis Center for Church Leadership. He is also a 2018 inductee into World Methodist Evangelism’s Order of the FLAME and has served for several years as a group leader for the Transition into Ministry Gathering sponsored by the Forum for Theological Exploration.
Rev. Barrett began his ministry journey in 2002 at the North Brentwood A.M.E. Zion Church, where he preached his trial sermon “Something Good Can Come Out of Nazareth”. Since then, it has been his aim to inspire others to “live full lives, full in the fullness of God” (Eph. 3:19 MSG). He served as the President of the Philadelphia-Baltimore Conference Varick Christian Youth Council (VCYC) and later began full time youth ministry as the Youth Pastor of the Judah Temple A.M.E. Zion Church in Mitchellville, MD.
In 2015, he yielded to the call of God and the godly wisdom of the late Bishop Richard Keith Thompson to take his first pastoral appointment as the pastor of the St. Paul A.M.E. Zion Church in Media, PA, after 6 years of nurturing, inspiring, and discipling the young people of Judah Temple. Rev. Barrett was appointed to serve the Alleyne A.M.E. Zion Church in 2018, and is continuing to lead the congregation in renewal and revitalization.
Additionally, he is the Co-Episcopal Director of Christian Education for the Mid-Atlantic Episcopal District and formerly served the A.M.E. Zion Church as the Program Director in the connectional Department of Christian Education upon his election. In this role, he was responsible for organizing and implementing the programs of the Winter Meetings and the Quadrennial Conventions. He began this work under the leadership of the late Rev. Dr. Kathryn Brown. Now he stands on the shoulders of those who have gone before to lead the Department of Christian Education into another level of vibrancy and effectiveness; working with church leaders to develop resources that help to build relevant and impactful discipleship ministry for the whole church.