The Rev. Dr. Cecelia W. Bryant, a powerful spiritual leader and builder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church who served as a mentor and comforted the afflicted, died Sept. 26 of breast cancer at her Baltimore home. She was 77.

“The Rev. Dr. Cecelia Bryant was a commanding disciple who stood deep and strong in her faith and family, as she remained deeply dedicated to the cause of salvation,” said U.S. Rep. Kweisi Mfume of Maryland.

“As an advocate for community healing and mental health awareness, she committed her whole life to spreading the word of God as a liberating and anointing force to everyone she met,” Rep. Mfume said. “She will be dearly missed but never forgotten.”

Cecelia Williams, daughter of Booker T. Williams, a World War II veteran, and Pauline Williams, an AME flight attendant, was born and raised in Yonkers, New York, where she graduated from Commerce High School.

She earned an associate degree from Elizabeth Seton College in Yonkers and obtained a bachelor’s degree in political science from Boston University. She was a graduate of Howard University in Washington, D.C., where she earned a master’s in divinity and her doctorate in ministry from United Theological Seminary in Ohio.

While at Boston University, she met John Bryant, a student at Boston University School of Theology. The couple married in 1969.

They came to Baltimore in 1976 when her husband was named pastor of Bethel AME Church, where she established a women’s center.

In 1988, her husband was consecrated as the 106th bishop of the AME Church, and they left Baltimore and moved to Liberia, where she became known as “Mother Bryant” for her work supporting women, building a school and joining her husband’s work in establishing AME churches throughout West Africa.

With her husband, she was the co-founder of the AME Church in India.

As a women’s empowerment leader, the Rev. Bryant’s work took her across the world, where she helped foster orphanages, churches and other sustainable projects. Cornerstones of her work included challenging injustice, supporting liberation and the African diaspora.

In recognition of her work, President Barack Obama presented her the President’s Volunteer Service Award.

Also known as “Rev. C,” the Rev. Bryant was the author of several books on spirituality, which she coauthored with her husband.

The former Ashburton resident and her husband moved to the Inner Harbor in 2016 after his retirement.

Funeral services were held Saturday at Empowerment Temple, the West Baltimore AME Church that had been founded by her son, the Rev. Jamal H. Bryant.

In addition to her husband and son, who now lives in Atlanta where he is pastor of New Birth Missionary Baptist Church, she is survived by a daughter, Dr. Thema Bryant, an ordained AME minister, author and professor of psychology at Pepperdine University in Los Angeles; a brother, Booker T. Williams of New York City; seven sisters, Katrina McCoy of Baltimore; Celeste Assing of Yonkers, New York; Paula Mays of Cleveland; Mary Razor of Jersey City, New Jersey; Debbie Williams and Elise Williams, both of Newburgh, New York; and Quinnie Phillips of Dallas; and seven grandchildren.