Bishop Calvin Rice

Pastor Calvin Rice has served as the Senior Pastor of the New Jerusalem Worship Center in Jamaica, New York since January 2005. In April 2018, he was elevated to the Episcopal office of Bishop in the Berean Fellowship of Churches head quartered in Columbus, Ohio where Bishop Timothy J. Clarke is the presiding prelate.

Before going to New Jerusalem, Bishop Rice served for 20 years as Senior Pastor of the First Central Baptist Church (FCBC) of Staten Island where he grew FCBC from thirty-five to more than 2,000 members. Bishop Rice also founded and serves as the CEO of the Rochdale Early Advantage Charter School, a Pre-K- Grade 8 publicly funded education institution housed in the lower level and administration wing of the New Jerusalem Worship Center complex. The school opened in 2010 with thirty-five scholars and currently has an enrollment of 486 students and a staff of 80 and an annual budget of ten million. In 2018 the school was listed as a “Rewards School”, an honor given to only 155 schools in the entire state. Bishop recently directed a $10 million expansion project to accommodate the rapid growth of the school which has a waiting list of over six hundred applicants. 

He previously served as a member of Mayor Bloomberg’s Economic Development Task Force and\ Staten Island Borough Presidents Economic and Anti-Bias Task Forces. He received recognition from The New York Association of Black and Puerto Rican Legislators for his Community and Economic Development work. In 2013 Bishop Rice was awarded “The Vernon M. Dougherty Distinction in Ministry Award”, the highest honor granted by the New Theological Seminary’s Alumnus. He has also received countless proclamations from the Governors of New York, NYC Mayors, US Senators and NYC Council persons. 

Bishop Rice’s academic achievements include a Bachelor of Science (BS) in Economics from the College of Staten Island and a Master of Professional Studies from the New York Theological Seminary. He completed graduate studies at the National Theological Seminary of Baltimore, MDand The Postgraduate Center for Mental Health of NYC in conjunction with Hebrew Union Seminary. He has also attended The Catawba Bible College of Rock Hill, SC and holds a certificate of study from the Hebrew University, Jerusalem Israel.