Mackey stepped into the sanctuary, and massive picture windows covered him in light. Mackey turned down the hall and toward the music, passing more security and church volunteers and, just at eye level, framed photos of Bishop Thomas. "Pastor coming down hallway 1," a security guard whispered into his wrist. Mackey held up one finger and took another sip of tea.Ĭolvard opened the door, and a wave of gospel music crashed into the room. "When do you want to come out?" he asked. Its chain tangled with the coil of a Secret Service-style earpiece. Just after 7:30 a.m., a burly church volunteer named Frank Colvard stepped into the dressing room. "So there's no way that I can walk in his shoes," he said, "but nobody can beat me in my shoes." He once told the congregation that his feet presented a problem: He wore only size 10.5 shoes, and he’d heard that Bishop Thomas wore at least size 13s. On his wrist he straps a wide-faced watch and an Alpha Phi Alpha rubber wristband. He keeps his hair shaved short, but leaves a thin line of a mustache above his lip. He’s 36 years old, with a round face that somehow seems both younger and older. They see the Bishop in the way he jabs his fingers and stamps his feet and sends his sermons snowballing, working himself into a righteous rhapsody that they swear looks just like Bishop Thomas. They listen for hints of the Bishop in Mackey's rumbling preacher's voice. He sits in the Bishop's office chair.Ĭongregants drop by during office hours to share their favorite stories. Now, Mackey labors under the legacy of a man he never met. The 50-year-old Thomas died unexpectedly in January 2018, ripping a hole in the city's civil-rights coalition and the church he'd led for 33 years. It had been almost three months since Mackey moved from Houston to Pilgrim Rest, a 4,000-member church that anchors Phoenix's black Christian community. He brought a stack of speaking awards and a reputation as one of America’s most dynamic young preachers.īut in Phoenix, he's known first as the pastor who came after Bishop Alexis A. Then he'd climb into the church van and ride across the Valley, toward another group of near-strangers who looked at him and thought of the man he’d been hired to replace. Between sermons, he knew, he had just enough time to shed one sweat-soaked shirt and pull on the next dry one. Mackey sipped his Starbucks and shook his head.
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