Pastor Geraldine "Ninka" James, founder of the William S. Barnes Sr. Memorial Faith Apostolic Church, died Thursday of heart failure at Good Samaritan Hospital. She was 76.
Geraldine Barnes was born in Baltimore and raised on Jefferson Street and North Broadway. She was the daughter of Bishop William S. Barnes Sr., pastor of St. Paul Apostolic Faith Church, and Geneva Barnes, a homemaker.
As a young child, Mrs. James had been baptized at First Apostolic Church; after her father entered the ministry, she helped around his church.
"Her involvement wasn't always voluntary," said a daughter, Margaret E. Henry of Joppa.
"Some of her assignments were unpleasant and arduous. She cleaned the houses of church members who were ill and the white walls of the storefront church where her father was pastor," she said. "Those experiences were her earliest ministerial training and laid the groundwork for many more years of kingdom service."
Mrs. James was a 1951 graduate of Dunbar High School and studied piano on a scholarship at the Peabody Conservatory.
She worked for a year at the Social Security Administration, and after being married in 1953 to George W. James, an SSA claims examiner, she became a mother and a homemaker.
Her husband died in 2007.
As an active member of her father's church, Mrs. James held many roles during his pastorship. She had been a Sunday school teacher, senior choir member and later its president.
She drove the church van, was president of the women's department and was especially interested in its single girls group. She was a member of the kitchen committee and the church anniversary committee, which planned the church's annual homecoming service.
For the past 21 years, Mrs. James, who had no formal theological training, was pastor of the William S. Barnes Sr. Memorial Apostolic Faith Church on Hillen Road, which she had founded in 1989.
"She was a great woman and a great woman of God and faith," said Keith C. Holley, who is pastor of the El-Shaddai Temple of Jesus Christ in Rosedale and a longtime friend.
Mr. Holley said that his congregation and Mrs. James' had a joint fellowship.
"She was a very dedicated person, good-natured and warm-hearted. She was an encourager who loved the Lord and God's people," he said. "She was a person who always wanted to serve. She gave her time. She gave her money. She gave herself."
He described Mrs. James has having "a mother's heart."
"She was a mother to many people, and she believed in living a good, clean and holy life," he said. "She knew God's word and loved to preach the Bible."
Mr. Holley said her preaching style was "much like that of a teacher. She made the Bible come alive, but in layman's terms. She was able to make it relevant for today."
Her daughter said her mother "had worked hard to build a ministry" and "toiled with a small band of believers" and was able to pay off the church mortgage ahead of the due date this year.
Joyce L. England, who has been a lifetime member of and is now pastor of St. Paul's Apostolic Church in the 1700 block of E. Baltimore St., is another longtime associate and friend.
"Pastor James took me under her wing," Ms. England said. "She was very civic-minded and cared about people and the disenfranchised, and was known for that work. She had a congregation, but her ministry went far beyond her church."
"She also traveled throughout the world witnessing, evangelizing and spreading the gospel. Over the years, she had become an excellent and much-sought-after teacher of God's word," her daughter said.
Her travels, her daughter said, took Mrs. James throughout the United States, as well as to England and Jamaica.
Services will be held at 6:30 p.m. Wednesday at her church, 3000 Hillen Road.
Also surviving are a son, Mark James of Northwood; another daughter, Teresa Withers of Perry Hall; three brothers, Bishop William S. Barnes Jr. of Randallstown, Samuel Barnes Sr. of Baltimore and Dr. Michael J. Barnes of Hempstead, N.Y.; two sisters, Pastor Josephine Diggs of Guilford and Delores Barnes of Randallstown; 10 grandchildren; and eight great-grandchildren. Another daughter, Thelma Norgriff, died in 2002.