Williamson, a long time pastor in Selma who was one of the founding pastors of Warrior Presbytery and the PCA, was asked to preside at his predecessor’s memorial service.

Dr. Geraldine Allen, president of the Selma (Ala.) City Council, was memorialized during a city organized service on Friday afternoon, held at the Carl Morgan Convention Center.

Citizens of Selma poured into the center to pay homage to Allen, who died last week after a long battle with cancer.

Mayor George Evans spoke of how Allen suffered in silence; how people did not know what pain her illness caused her and how she did not complain. That strength of character, Evans said, should teach all of Selma a lesson.

The Rev. Dr. Cecil Williamson, a long time pastor in Selma who was one of the founding pastors of Warrior Presbytery and the PCA, will ascend from president pro-tempore to City Council president.

In his memorial message, Williamson, reminding the mourners gathered at the convention center that Allen has no pain and is not suffering, said:

“As Christians today, even though we sorrow, we can rejoice because we know that she is at that home that is eternal in the heavens not made by human hands where there shall be no more death, neither sorrow nor crying and neither shall there be any more pain. We affirm with the apostle that to be absent from this body is to be present with the Lord.”

Williamson, originally from Montgomery, attended seminary at Columbia Theological Seminary in the early 60’s after earning a BA at Auburn. After ordination, he took a call to the Alabama Avenue Presbyterian Church in 1965. Marrying a local Selma girl, Peggy Duke, he settled down in town and, in 1969 was called to pastor the Crescent Hill Presbyterian Church where he remains yet today.

In 2004 he completed training in the law at the Jones Law School in Montgomery. Affiliated with Faulkner University, Jones is one of the few Christian-based law schools in the nation.