First AME Church remembers Rev. Cecil Murray

Remembering Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray

The Rev. Dr. Cecil Murray died Friday. Murray was remembered at Sunday service at First AME Church.

LOS ANGELES - From the pulpit of First African Methodist Episcopal Church of Los Angeles, FAME Senior Pastor Robert Shaw told the congregation Sunday morning, "Reverend Doctor Cecil 'Chip' Murray on the other evening gained his wings."

"We're standing on his shoulders," Shaw said. His wife, Executive Pastor of the First AME Church Ann Champion Shaw said, "He was such an embodiment of just love, unity and peace."

For 27 years, Dr. Murray spread the good word until his retirement in 2004. He'd often say from the pulpit, "God is good; God is good."

Cecil Murray: Longtime pastor dead at 94

Rev. Cecil L. "Chip" Murray, who served as pastor of First African Methodist Episcopal Church for 27 years has died at age 94.

His voice was always reassuring and powerful. To some at the service, "He was a commercial for God."

To Krystal Hunt, "He baptized me. He baptized my daughter."

Candace Kregler says she "started coming here when I was 19 years old. Just walked in here and felt at home at ease with him. He not only married me, he baptized both my kids. He counseled us when I got a divorce as well."

To so many, he was a father figure, and, in the church on Sunday two days after his death, there were local politicians like Mayor Karen Bass, Representative Adam Schiff and former LA Mayor Antonio Villaraigosa in attendance. Villaraigosa told FOX11 outside FAME, "For all of us, whether you knew him or not, he will be missed."

Villaraigosa said Murray was a shepherd, "who brought the flock in and particularly in difficult times after the civil disturbances of '92."

The civil unrest followed the verdict in the Rodney King case. The city was in turmoil and Murray helped in calming the tension. To activist Najee Ali, who considered Murray a father figure, the pastor's intervention mattered.

"It was very critical," said Ali. "LA would've burned for much longer and more days had pastor Murray not been that voice of calm and reason and asking for peace and conciliation."

Ask anyone who came to the church who knew him, the Murray was all about hope. And, as he once said from the pulpit, "Anybody hopeless, I've got some hope for you."

The Reverend Doctor Cecil Murray was 94.