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. Establishing and initially leading the Joint College of Bishops as their metropolitan archbishop, Ellis also founded 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. From the inception of the Joint College of Bishops, Ellis, alongside the organization's co-founders—Wilbert Sterling McKinley, Roy Edward Brown, and Paul S. Morton—have been labeled as "leaders in the shift" among African American Pentecostalism for introducing liturgical order and identity among Pentecostal or Full Gospel churches and denominations. As a promoter of ecumenism, Ellis placed Pentecostalism as manifested among African Americans in conversation with the broader Christian community around the world. Through Ellis, many classical and Oneness Pentecostal denominations claim to derive "western and eastern streams of apostolic succession" as described in his book, The Bishopric – A Handbook on Creating Episcopacy in the African-American Pentecostal Church. Biography Early life 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 Moorish Science and then the Nation of Islam. During his childhood, his mother was placed in a mental health institution; 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 (see also: apostasy in 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