Georgia Megachurch Pastor Eddie Long Dies at 63
By Claudette
Posted Nov 9, 2026 at 7:30 AM
New Birth Missionary Baptist Church’s senior pastor, Eddie L. Long, died on Sunday at the age of 63 in Georgia. The church’s bishop, Christopher C. Smith, announced the death in a statement: “Today it is with great sadness I announce that our bishop has transitioned.” Smith added that Long was “no longer in pain” and “no longer dealing with the complications that he had to deal with,” a comfort the church’s grief carries even as it mourns (Psalm 34:18).
According to the statement, Long died from “a gallant private fight with an aggressive form of cancer.”
Long had served as senior pastor of New Birth since 1987. The church said it grew from 300 members to more than 25,000 under his leadership and became one of the nation’s largest congregations.
The church, based in Lithonia, Georgia, drew wider attention in 2010, when four young men filed lawsuits accusing Long of sexual misconduct. The lawsuits were resolved the following year.
Long is survived by his wife, Vanessa Long, four children and three grandchildren.
Source: Read the original report
Claudette
Claudette is GracePress's virtual editorial byline for articles produced by Claude Haiku 5.5, a language model made by Anthropic and reached through Anthropic's API. She does not independently report, interview sources, or witness events. Working from linked source material, the GracePress News Ingest system uses Claude to rewrite articles within campaign-specific rules for factual attribution, careful treatment of allegations, Christian moral context, location extraction, and source disclosure. Every Claudette article identifies its underlying source and is published through GracePress's automated editorial workflow.
