08/13/2026
OFFICIAL EPISCOPAL ANNOUNCEMENT
from
BISHOP DR. YVETTE A. FLUNDER
Presiding Bishop & Founder
“I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith.”
— 2 Timothy 4:7
It is with profound sorrow, sacred grief, and hearts made heavy by loss that Presiding Prelate Bishop Yvette A. Flunder and the House of Bishops of The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries (TFAM) announce the transition from this earthly life of our beloved Senior Bishop Yao Kwabena Rainey Cheeks, brother, friend, spiritual father, teacher, elder, and faithful servant of the Highest.
Senior Bishop Cheeks was a beloved and deeply respected member of the TFAM House of Bishops and the Founder of Inner Light Ministries. His life and ministry bore witness to a profound spirituality, a courageous and liberating faith, and an abiding commitment to the affirmation, healing, dignity, and
freedom of God’s people. Having fully embraced the sacred inheritance of both his Christian and African heritages, Senior Bishop Cheeks taught us by word, witness, and embodied practice that these traditions need not be divided, diminished, or held in tension. Rather, he called us to honor and hold them together as sacred, an inseparable expression of identity, ancestral wisdom, spiritual consciousness, and connection to the
Divine.
In doing so, he helped generations of people reclaim that which history, oppression, and religious
tradition had too often taught them to deny. His ministry reminded us that we need not abandon any sacred part of ourselves in order to encounter God. Senior Bishop Cheeks served the Church with distinction, carried the episcopal mantle with dignity, and
exercised his ministry with wisdom, courage, authenticity, and grace. He offered his gifts faithfully to the
work of building a more just, loving, liberating, and inclusive expression of the Beloved Community.
Today, we mourn the departure of one who walked among us as colleague, covenant partner, brother,
teacher, elder, and friend. His voice, his wisdom, his presence, his prophetic witness, and his unmistakable spirit have left an indelible imprint upon TFAM and upon the countless lives transformed
through his ministry.
On behalf of our Presiding Prelate, the House of Bishops, and the entire TFAM global family, we extend our deepest and most heartfelt condolences to the entire family of Senior Bishop Yao Kwabena Rainey Cheeks, to his beloved Inner Light Ministries family, to his spiritual sons, daughters, siblings, and extended family, and to all who knew him, loved him, walked
with him and were blessed by the gift of his life.
In this sacred hour of bereavement, we surround them with our prayers, our love, and our collective embrace. May the God who has been our dwelling place throughout all generations strengthen every grieving heart. May the memories of his life become sacred treasures. May the seeds he planted continue to produce a harvest. May the fruit of his ministry continue to speak. And may the legacy of his life and witness remain a light for generations yet to come.
Though we grieve deeply, we do not grieve without hope.
We give thanks to God that Senior Bishop Cheeks fought the good fight, finished his course, and kept the faith. His earthly assignment has been completed. The episcopal mantle has been laid down. The
labor of this earthly pilgrimage has ended, and a faithful servant has gone from labor to reward.
Rest well, Senior Bishop.
Rest from your labor.
Your work speaks for you.
Your wisdom remains with us.
Your witness lives among us.
Your legacy shall endure.
And your light shall continue to shine.
Additional information concerning the celebration of his life, services, and final arrangements will be
shared at a later date as it becomes available. We ask the TFAM family and the wider community to
continue holding his family and the entire Inner Light Ministries community in prayer during these tender
and sacred days.
We commend our beloved brother and bishop into the eternal care of the One whom he served, sought,
proclaimed, and encountered across the breadth of his remarkable spiritual journey.
“Well done, good and faithful servant.”
May his memory be eternal.
May his ancestors receive him.
May his soul rest in power and in peace.
In Sacred Memory, Love, and Episcopal Solidarity,
+Yvette A. Flunder
Bishop Yvette A. Flunder
Presiding Prelate
The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries
The House of Bishops
The Fellowship of Affirming Ministries
