Upstate pastor to lead convention

Black Baptist group names president

The Rev. Benjamin D. Snoddy was elected unanimously Thursday as president of the Baptist Educational and Missionary Convention of South Carolina, the largest black Baptist organization in the state.

Snoddy, pastor of Mount Moriah Baptist Church in Spartanburg and the convention’s first vice president, succeeds the Rev. L.P. Graham, who died last month at 58.

The election of Snoddy at the convention’s 131st annual convention in Sumter was joyous but tinged with sadness because of Graham’s untimely death. The convention presented a video tribute to the late president and took up an offering for his family.

Snoddy, a graduate of Claflin University and the Morehouse School of Religion at Atlanta’s International Theological Center, was next in line to succeed Graham. But he was not expected to head the organization until Graham stepped down after five one-year terms.

Graham, pastor of Columbia’s Zion Baptist Church, had headed the organization since 2005.

Under convention rules, presidents are elected annually and can serve up to five years. Under new organizational rules, the president will appoint vice presidents for the state’s six regions, and other officers, said the Rev. Michael McClain, a spokesman for the organization.

Snoddy has served as pastor of Bushy Pond Baptist Church in Norway and Tabernacle Baptist Church of Blackville and worked as a clinical chaplain at the state Department of Corrections.

He is an assistant dean of the National Baptist Congress of Christian Education, an affiliate of the National Baptist Convention, USA Inc.

— Carolyn Click