Mother Ethel Mae Bonner

Today, I am grateful for...

Mother Ethel Mae Bonner

This one won't be as long as the others, because though I knew her all of my life - there was only one short season where we actually interacted, and it was the time I needed her the most.

Mother Bonner was an icon to those of us who were raised in a Church of Our Lord Jesus Christ of the Apostolic Faith (or the COOL JC as it was affectionatly known!)  She was the matriarch of the organization, and wife to the president, Bishop William Lee Bonner.  They lived in Detroit, Michigan and when I was about 8 or 9, they dedicated Solomon's Temple Church in Downtown.  I can remember red jacketed, white gloved elders who demanded my brothers and I spit our gum into their hands before entering the new sanctuary.  The other memory of that day..hats! Big, space saucer like concoctions that left it impossible to see over. 

Fast forward 20 years. I was living in California at the time.  I was trying to find a better climate for the Rheumatoid Arthritis that I was suffering, and it seemed like a good idea at the time.  It was important to me to find a church as soon as I got there.  I found one, and I enjoyed it very much.  The summer that I lived there, was also the summer that the COOL JC had its State Meeting in Sacramento.  I made a point to go, and I found my way to Mother Bonner.  You have to understand the ceremony that is involved with these meetings to really appreciate my story.  She asked me to walk with her to the business meeting, and to sit with her.  As we entered the room - all talking stopped. The men rose and 2 elders made their way toward us.  One took each of our arms and led us to the front row and sat us down.  When this was done, the meeting commenced.  As I looked around, it dawned on me that I wsa the only "salt in the pepper shaker" (that's for you, Ms.Coretta!)  When it was time for the meeting to end. Mother Bonner was asked to give her thoughts on what had been discussed, and she did so - without pulling any punches she gave them her good and negative points.  Then she proceeded to introduce me.  My grandfather was the only white Bishop in the COOL JC, so when she introduced me as his granddaughter, I was like a rock star..people came to shake my hand and meet me. This went on for nearly an hour until finally Mother Bonner sent an elder for me.  When we got to her, she informed me that we had been invited to the formal luncheon and I was to be her guest if I wanted.  Of course!  Free food, and from cooks that make you wanna slap someone!  However, Mother looked a little disappointed.  I asked her if she wanted to go. "I suppose I should," she said, "but I could really go for a Whopper.  Do you like Whoppers?" A Whopper?  We were about to go into a didning hall with a spread of food cooked by the greatest church mothers in the state, and she wanted a Whopper?? But if I was taught anything, I was taught to be pleasing.  Off to Burger King...in her HUGE CADILLAC!  As we drove through the streets of Sacramento, Mother Bonner asked me about my life and what I wanted.  I told her some of my hopes and my dreams.  It was then that she gave me the best advice I have ever been given to this day.  As a woman of God, we sometimes feel that ministry, and being the wife of a minister is all that we are fit for.  Mother Bonner dispelled that myth, and told me this...I can get an education, have a career and still please the Lord.  If family and children were my desire - I could have those too!  As long as I put the Lord FIRST in everything, He was going to give me the desires of my heart!

As we made our way through the drive thru at Burger King (there was plenty of room in the Caddy...no need to go inside), Mother Bonner ordered 2 Whoppers.  As we approached the window to pay, I quickly reached into my purse and produced the cash to pay for the luch.  "Are you sure?" she asked...Absoultely.  I just got the best advice from one of the most influential people I knew...and it was only gonna cost me $4!  We ate our burgers, laughed and visited for the rest of the lunch time.  When we got back to the hotel, it was time for Mother Bonner to attend a meeting that Iwas not able to attend.  She informed me that we were in a pretty bad part of town, and she was going to have her driver escort me home safely.  We said good-bye, and parted ways.

I never saw her in person again, though we had many phone calls and letters after that.  I was very sick when she passed, and wasn't able to attend her funeral. That was fine my me - I had the memory I wanted to keep forever...sitting in her Cadillac, enjoying a Whopper.

Rest in Jesus, Mother Bonner...until we meet again!  Thank you!

(Continued from “The Unique Woman of Worth” By Mother Miriam Norwood)

The late wife of Chief Apostle William L. Bonner, an innovative classroom teacher, an astute business woman, a cook, gifted singer, mother to a son, daughter, several grandchildren, spiritual mother to many, pioneer missionary worker in Liberia, West Africa, and a multi-talented, creative woman of God. In the early years of the ministry in Detroit, Michigan, Mother Bonner operated a restaurant preparing delicious meals at affordable prices for the clientele she served. She was a pioneer in organizing the Ministers and Deacons Wives’ Guild uniting the women to provided training, inspiration and fellowship for them as they supported their husbands in the ministry and in the leadership of their congregations. She spent three years in Liberia teaching and organizing the school, dormitories and initiating projects to enable the school to raise some crops to help meet student needs. The labor of love she gave and the noteworthy accomplishments at home and abroad are a poignant tribute to this grand woman of God.