The Reverend Dr. Charles Franklin Boyer is a third-generation African Methodist Episcopal preacher. He is the pastor of Greater Mt. Zion A.M.E. Church in Trenton, New Jersey, and the co-founder with his wife Rosalee of Salvation and Social Justice, a non-partisan Black faith-rooted public policy. He is also a Senior Consultant to the Social Action Commission of the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

Dr. Boyer is the leading faith voice in New Jersey for racial justice issues, the campaign to abolish the drug war and the criminalization of Black people. His advocacy led to several statewide policy changes such as racial impact analysis, closure of youth prisons, voting rights restoration for the formerly incarcerated, independent prosecutors, restricting solitary confinement, community reinvestment of millions of dollars each year through cannabis taxes, secured $8.4M for restorative justice hubs and $12M for community led first response as an alternative to police. He led the campaign to free over nine thousand people from New Jersey’s deadly prisons during the pandemic, making it the largest singular decarceration event in the state’s history.

In June of 2022, Reverend Boyer was appointed the 68th pastor of Greater Mount Zion. Since he and Rosalee’s tenure the church satisfied a $700,000 debt to the First Episcopal District, opened GMZ properties up to Afghan and Haitian refugees, established the Trenton Restorative Street Team to deal with gun violence, bought housing for people returning to Trenton from incarceration, repaired, remodeled and renovated the sanctuary, the parsonage, and the original church on Perry Street, established the GMZCDC, opened the Myra Ashley Outreach Center feeding hundreds of families per week, began repair of an old school building for a Black led birthing and restorative justice center securing over $4M and now Rosalee sits on the Maternal and Infant Health Authority for the state of New Jersey.

More than anything, Rev. Boyer is passionate about spiritual disciplines, especially prayer and meditation. His favorite scripture is Psalms 27:13, “I would have lost heart, unless I had believed, that I would see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living”. Charles and Rosalee have three children: Shaina, Kyle, and Jayden and two grandchildren: Noah and Autumn.