Community Mourns Death Of Faith Leader Bishop Carlton Pearson

Friends and family are mourning the loss of influential faith leader Bishop Carlton Pearson, founder of the former Tulsa megachurch Higher Dimensions.

Bishop Pearson passed away Sunday night at age 70 in hospice care, ending a long battle with cancer.

Bishop Carlton Pearson has a long history of preaching in Tulsa churches, but his last post was at All Souls Unitarian, where leaders say he leaves a lasting legacy of love and grace.

Since 2015, Bishop Carlton Pearson delivered sermons at All Souls Unitarian church as an affiliate minister.

"He spoke right here from this pulpit," said Reverend Dr. Marlin Lavanhar.

As Lavanhar looked back, it seemed an unlikely place for him to end up.

"The first time I became aware of him, we were both being interviewed for the news on opposite sides of an issue," he said.

It was an introduction that pointed out the differences between the two faith leaders.

"...it was George W. Bush's faith-based initiatives, and he was for it, and I was against it," he said.

After several years and a major shift in religious belief, Bishop Pearson found himself in the pews of All Souls, a church that embraced his new-found gospel of inclusion. Now Reverend Lavanhar had a chance to meet a man he'd only known from a distance. 

"When I got to know him, I came to realize he was a profoundly loving, caring, down-to-earth person," he says.

Lavanhar embraced the person he was learning more about and saw the impact he had on the people around him.

"No matter what their religious expression was, no matter what their racial-ethnic background was, their sexual orientation, you name it, he said God loves you and I think he brought more people to understand that they are loved by God than any pastor that I've ever met," he said.

As the church mourns the loss of Bishop Pearson, they carry on that message.

"I think we all see that now it's our time to continue to spread that message through our own lives and our own stories," said Lavanhar.