J. Delano Ellis

Jesse Delano Ellis II, commonly known as J. Delano Ellis, (December 11, 1944 – September 19, 2020) was an American Protestant religious leader and progenitor of unity among African American Pentecostals with Trinitarian and nontrinitarian affinities through the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops.

Ordained an elder at the age of 19 within the Church of God in Christ, and elevated as bishop at the age of 26, Ellis established and served as presiding prelate for the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ (today the United Covenant Churches of Christ) and Pentecostal Churches of Christ. He served as the senior pastor of the Pentecostal Church of Christ in Cleveland, Ohio, beginning on May 14, 1989.

Through Ellis, many Trinitarian and Oneness Pentecostal denominations claim to derive "western and eastern streams of apostolic succession" as described in the appendix to his book, The Bishopric – A Handbook on Creating Episcopacy in the African-American Pentecostal Church. According to Ellis, claims of succession stemmed from the Church of England, the Methodist Episcopal Church, and the Church of God in Christ; he also claimed apostolic succession through the Syro-Chaldean Church. Through Catholic, Orthodox, and Anglican understandings, his claims to apostolic succession are rejected.

J. Delano Ellis II was the son of Lucy and Jesse Delano Ellis Sr. At age 13 or 14, Lucy became pregnant with Ellis. His mother was a Christian and his father rejected Christianity for the Moorish Science Temple of America and then the Nation of Islam. During his childhood, his mother was placed in a mental health institution; and he then lived with his grandmother and great aunt.

During his teen years, Ellis attempted to establish a relationship with his father by attending a Nation of Islam mosque. His father told them Jesus was the "white man's god and Christianity was a trick designed to enslave black people." Ellis began attending the Christian Tabernacle Church of God in Christ under the pastorate of Bishop R.T. Jones Sr. One night at the church Ellis professed Christianity and claimed his father physically abused him for rejecting Islam.

In his early adulthood, Ellis joined the United States Air Force and attended the Church of the Nazarene. Due to racial segregation he joined the Christian Methodist Episcopal Church and developed an appreciation of high church liturgy and ecclesiology. He soon returned to the Church of God in Christ.

In 1963, Ellis was ordained at the age of 19 by Bishop Ozro Thurston Jones Sr. of the Church of God in Christ; he was later elevated to the episcopacy at the age of 26 by Bishop Brumfield Johnson of the United Holy Church of America. In the Church of God in Christ, Ellis organized the Adjutant's Corp. He served as the third Chief Adjutant of the National Adjutancy of the Church of God in Christ. Establishing the Adjutant's Corp for the Church of God in Christ, Ellis used his education and exposure to Anglicanism which culminated in the denomination and other Pentecostal bodies adopting Anglican vestments.

In 1989, Ellis was asked to lead a Oneness Pentecostal congregation outside of the Church of God in Christ. He determined Oneness Pentecostalism and Trinitarianism weren't entirely different conceptions, yet rejected distinctions between the persons of the Trinity. He came to believe there was no scriptural support for the doctrine of Trinitarian Christianity. Ellis soon after founded the United Pentecostal Churches of Christ (today the United Covenant Churches of Christ).