When the Rev. Calvin O. Butts III, who presided over the church for three decades, died two years ago at the age of 73, his legacy was felt both at the level of spiritual inspiration and material advantage. As chairman of the Abyssinian Development Corporation, he delivered roughly $1 billion to residential and commercial projects in Harlem, brought a new high school to the neighborhood and worked to blunt the sharpest edges of gentrification. As former Mayor Michael Bloomberg put it when the pastor died, “Reverend Butts took the idea of building the kingdom of God literally.”Perhaps because of this outsize imprint, the process of naming his successor has been divisive, raising questions among some congregants around transparency and bias and whether the church, with a few thousand members, can sustain its prominence, or even stability. Over the past two years, the search for a new leader has been consuming.

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Persons: Adam Clayton Powell Jr, ’, Calvin O, Butts III, Michael Bloomberg, “, Butts, Kevin R, Johnson, C, Vernon Mason, ” Organizations: Abyssinian, Abyssinian Development Corporation, Inc, Baptist Locations: New York, Harlem, Philadelphia