By Frederick N. Rasmussen , Sun reporter|August 12, 2008
Bishop Monroe Randolph Saunders Sr., who was founder and senior pastor of the First United Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic, now Transformation Church of Jesus Christ, died Friday of cancer at his Ashburton home. He was 89.
Mr. Saunders, the son of farmers, was born and raised in Florence, S.C. He was high school valedictorian and earned a scholarship to Virginia State College for Negroes, now Virginia State University, in Petersburg.
After the death of his eldest brother, he left college and moved to Baltimore to help his sister-in-law raise their four children.
"When he had come to Baltimore upon the death of his brother, he found a church that a lot of his family were attending at the time," said Esther K. Faulkner, a daughter who lives in Woodstock and is an administrator at the church.
"That's when he came to know the Lord as his personal savior. He got the calling at a very young age and from that point, he'd given his life to serve God," she said. "He worked very hard in the ministry and touched a lot of lives."
During World War II, he enlisted in the Army, where he attained the rank of sergeant, and was assigned as a chaplain to troops at Camp Barkeley, Texas.
After the war, Mr. Saunders attended Howard University on the G.I. Bill, earning a bachelor's degree in sociology and later in divinity. He also earned a doctorate of ministry degree, also from Howard.
He was ordained a bishop in 1957, and pastored the Rehoboth Church of God in Washington, before coming to Ashburton in 1965, when he established the First United Church of Jesus Christ Apostolic on Copley Road.
In 1978, Mr. Saunders purchased a 22-acre site and relocated his church to what had been the campus of the old Samuel Ready School on Baltimore National Pike.
"He inspired by example and was a great role model for me and my ministry," said Bishop Monroe R. Saunders Jr., of Ellicott City, who succeeded his father in 1993. "He believed in the holistic approach to the mind, body and spirit."
Mr. Saunders created numerous ministries within the church, some of which included several radio ministries, a home and hospital visitation ministry, a prison ministry, the First United Apostolic Federal Credit Union, and bookstore and library ministry.
He also established the Mariners, an organization for young married couples, a prayer clinic, and a social services department, among others.
