Uncrowned Community Builders

Jacqueline Foye was born in Goldsboro, North Carolina. After losing her mother at a very early age, Jacqueline was reared, along with six sisters and one brother, in an Apostolic home by her father, Deacon Monroe Bryant. She attended the School Street Elementary School and Dillard High School, of which she graduated in 1953.

In 1955, she married her high-school sweetheart James E. Foye, Sr. They had three children, James, Jr., Valerie, and Tracey. She also is grandmother to James, III, Jasmine, and Christian.

Following a business career in New York City, she continued her education at Erie Community College (ECC) in Buffalo. She was employed for four years by the Buffalo Board of Education, after which she worked for the Health Department and as a manager for Liberty Shoe Store.

Through the years she has worked in the church, organizing choirs in various cities and states along the east coast. For twenty-five years she worked faithfully as the Minister of Music for Emmanuel Temple Church in Buffalo under the leadership of the late Bishop William Crossley. Her service was not in the church alone, but also in the community. She volunteered her time to tutoring remedial reading, making home and hospital visitations, also working with the Community Action Organization (CAO) programs, and the PTA.

In 1979, she was appointed pastor and overseer of the Apostolic House of Prayer (AHOP). The former building of AHOP was gutted and reconstructed by Deacon James E. Foye, Sr., and a new edifice was completed in 1993. Pastor Jacqueline Foye was honored as the First African American Woman to build a church in the State of New York. There are many more visions and goals for AHOP, such as a Community Outreach Program to assist the homeless and those in need, a daycare, school, and housing facility.

The most challenging experience in Foye's life was when she attended the Seminary of Religious Justice. During her study at the seminary she embraced a new perspective toward pastoral care and counseling. She graduated in 1999.

Through the years, Pastor Foye has labored in God's vineyard, and with grace and help from above she will continue to work until the day is done. It is her firm belief that God has given her, "faith that conquers anything.