Rev. Julius L. Scipio
Very early in life, Reverend Scipio adopted the motto of GMC Trucks, “Do One Thing and Do It Well.” He has spent his entire adult life as a minister of the gospel. He was born on a farm in Darlington, South Carolina. He was the fifth of ten children born to Isaiah and Margaret Scipio. Julius received his early education in the local schools and furthered his education at Claflin College in Orangeburg, South Carolina, and at Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Georgia, where he earned the Master of Divinity degree. His pastoral appointments include Bennettsville and Pickens, South Carolina; Fort Lauderdale and Pompano Beach, Florida; St. Louis, Missouri; Detroit, Michigan; Spartanburg and Columbia, South Carolina; and Memphis, Tennessee. In addition, he has found time to work with the migrant ministry of the United Methodist Church, traveling with migrant farm workers from Florida to South County, Rhode Island.
During a career that has spanned fifty years, Rev. Scipio has touched countless lives through the pastoral ministry, evangelism, community outreach and a deep concern for the men and women in every community in which he has lived. He has worked with community-based organizations from the Boy’s and Girl’s Clubs and other youth groups to senior citizen centers and programs, and is a fixture in the local churches, schools, colleges, and universities, where his unique blend of homespun humor and timeless wisdom has kept him in constant demand as a speaker.
Upon what began as his retirement from the pastoral ministry in 1994, Rev. Scipio returned to a community filled with young men and women who were in dire need of direction and guidance, but in even greater need of love and attention. Seeing the need to provide the local criminal justice system with an alternative to incarceration for so many youths who had just lost direction and were not yet “menaces to society,” he founded a grass roots organization called the Elephant Men. The basic premise of the organization is that concerned citizens must do for the youth in their communities what elephants do for young elephants, surrounding them with a circle of protection to shield them from life’s dangers. Rev. Scipio believes that because of busy schedules and other pressures on time and attention for most of us, our young adults had been left out of the circle much too long.
His work with the Elephant Men was recognized when he was nominated for and awarded local and national Jefferson Awards from the Institute for Public Service and the Order of the Palmetto, the highest honor bestowed by the Governor of the state of South Carolina to private citizens of the state. Rev. Julius Scipio is a living example of what can be done with very little, in terms of material resources, but with a limitless faith in, boundless energy and innate unwillingness to see wrong and not give of his all to make it right. In addition to the various duties Rev. Scipio has, in 2004 he was called upon to serve as the Interim Pastor of Royal Baptist Church of Anderson, SC. Nine months later he was voted to become the Pastor until the present time.
Rev. Scipio has served with complete satisfaction; to one of the most fantastic congregations he has ever served. There is a sense of anticipation in the congregation for the possible programs that they may be able to execute.