Pictured are County Commissioner Larry Maxey (from left), Mary Guthrie, Bishop Nealon Guthrie and Floyd County Commissioner John Mayes after proclamations from the city and county were read Sunday honoring Guthrie’s 55 years of service to the ministry in Rome. (Doug Walker / Rome News-Tribune)
The 85-year old pastor was celebrating his 55th anniversary in Rome. Guthrie is a native of Indianapolis, Ind.
He was called to the ministry in 1945 at the age of 18.
Guthrie came to Rome in 1957, and within two years was promoted to District Elder in the Georgia State Council of Pentecostal Assemblies of the World.
The Greater Christ Temple Church had only 12 members when Guthrie moved to Rome. His first church was located on Flannery Street in East Rome.
Today, the Greater Christ Temple Rapture Preparation Holiness Cathedral, 1321 Martin Luther King Jr. Drive, can seat 800 parishioners.
It was opened in 1987, a decade before Guthrie was promoted to full bishop status by the church in 1997.
Maxey read a proclamation from the County Commission while Mayes read a document from the Rome City Commission. Both proclamations cited his, “dedication, community hospitality and spiritual leadership which has touched the communities of Rome and Floyd County.”
Guthrie’s church has sponsored one of the largest annual Easter egg hunts in Rome and Floyd County for many years.
Maxey called Guthrie a personal friend while Mayes said he remembered first meeting Guthrie in a local grocery store when the commissioner was a young child.
Guthrie was also an employee of the U.S. Postal Service and has been active in community activities, including service as assistant chairman of the equal employment opportunity program for the USPS in Rome.
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