The Legacy of
Apostle Arturo Skinner
 Founder of the Deliverance Movement
1924 – 1973

Our Founder was born Arthur Alfred Skinner to Ethel Rhoda and James Leon Skinner on December 15, 1924 in Brooklyn, New York. Along with his two older brothers, James, Jr. (Bucky) and Clyde and half brother Irving, the family crowded into a small cold flat on the 1700 block of Fulton Street. Eventually his father left the family to return to his native Barbados, where he remained until his death in 1945.

 “Arturo” earned his nickname because of his West Indies background and flamboyant personality. As a child he was a natural entertainer. Growing up in Jewish neighborhoods he took odd jobs and learned Yiddish fluently and served as a translator for Jews in the community who only spoke Hebrew. Work aside, Arturo’s real joy – and pride – came from dancing in the streets. All his creative energy and talent would exude as he tapped his way on busy street corners, eager for the audience, the applause and the coins that came his way at the end of the performance.  He was a master of tapping and performing all the latest ballroom dances. In spite of the money he earned, life was extremely hard for the family. So at fifteen he left school to work as a shipping clerk to help maintain the household.

Being a clerk was short lived. Encouraged by a talent scout, Arturo soon began to frequent Harlem trying to establish his career as entertainer. Eventually he became caught up in a whirlwind, dancing his way across nightclub strips and even appearing in several Broadway musicals. Money poured in – and quickly went out. He loved fine clothes, jewelry, and even started collecting ceramic dogs (a hobby he maintained for the rest of his life). Arturo became a heavy social drinker and eventually turned to drugs to try to maintain a euphoria that was quickly fading.   

Twenty-eight years of Arturo Skinner’s life had gone by before his miraculous conversion came while on the brink of suicide in 1952. He reached his crisis the year following his mother’s death after suffering a stroke at the age of 61. That faithful night two voices conflicted inside of him. One compelling him to “go were your mother is” the other saying “Arturo, I want you to turn your life over to me. Give me your heart”. According to Arturo Skinner, he received his salvation in the middle of Brooklyn’s busy Atlantic Avenue thoroughfare, when Jesus prevented him from taking his own life.

Determined to start anew, he gave away custom-made furniture, opened his closets to friends and withdrew the little money he had from the bank and proclaimed that it was going towards working for God. With a few possessions and his mother Bible in hand, Arturo Skinner (he legally changed his name sometime later) took a train to Hartford, Connecticut and spent the next 56 days in the Allen Hotel. He recalled later that those were some of the most torturous days and nights of his whole life, as God prepared him for ministry through dreams and visions.

Fully recovered, he returned to New York and promptly attended the Bethel Bible Institute in Jamaica, Long Island, New York, where he received the baptism of the Holy Ghost. It was during this time that he went to live in the home of the esteemed Judge James Lopez Watson, Jr. and his mother, Mrs. Viola Watson, who influenced him greatly and whom he considered his adopted parents. He and Judge Watson remained close friends for the rest of his life. While living in the Watson home, he worked as a houseboy to earn the money required for his personal sustenance and study.

He graduated from the Institute and was ordained as an evangelist on Psalm Sunday, 1952 and soon after started holding evangelistic services and tent meetings. Many people that came to his services were healed as countless miracles began to occur.

After three and a half years the people who supported his meetings, insisted that Arturo locate a church home. The church began simply by holding meetings in the home of Mother Mary Armarty. As the power of God worked through Apostle Skinner, the congregation soon outgrew her living room and moved to a storefront on Pershing Avenue in Newark, New Jersey, then to Springfield Avenue, which also became too small.

The congregation outgrew several other locations including the Masonic Temple at 188 Belmont Avenue before they marched, one Sunday morning, into a new building, the Central Avenue Theatre, at 505 Central Avenue in Newark. The Theatre became the Newark Deliverance Evangelistic Center's first headquarters, holding about 1500 people.  Deliverance was being born thought Apostle Skinner still hesitated to put a pattern or formula to his ministry.

Meanwhile there was still a need for ministry to continue in Brooklyn. So Apostle Skinner conducted Saturday night Deliverance rallies, beginning first at 182 Gates Avenue. As in Newark, the swelling attendance kept forcing the rallies to still larger accommodations, eventually they where moved into the Bedford Street YMCA.

Finally, Reverend Skinner ventured forth and bought another theatre building, the old Kismet Theatre at 785 DeKalb Avenue. The Kismet held close to 2,000 people – and soon, it too, was holding packed services. Renamed The Deliverance Tabernacle, it was purchased to accommodate weekly services, house church staff, the printing ministry, and the other mechanics of what was now growing into an international ministry. The vision of Deliverance was expanding in Arturo Skinner’s mind as he continued to seek God’s counsel for the future. In 1957 he was inspired to create the Deliverance Evangelistic Centers, Inc., Worldwide. He said, “Deliverance is not as an organization, but an organism of the Body of Christ”.

The man who once so desperately needed saving, was now responsible – through the message of deliverance – for saving countless thousands of lives by transmitting his own powerful belief of salvation to his huge flock. This sizeable feat was being accomplished through weekly services, and the weekly DEC radio broadcast, which was embraced by people in the United States as well as Mexico, Canada and the Caribbean Islands. Outreach was also accomplished through various huge Crusade caravans that traveled cross-country. DEC outreach ministry, spread throughout the world, because of Pastor Skinners heartfelt desire to "reach and win 10 million souls in every corner of the world for Christ" with the message of Deliverance. Apostle Skinner made history when rented Madison Square Garden in New York City and preached to a capacity crowd.

On April 28, 1963 Apostle Arturo Sinner, along side his friend and brother Reverend Charles Miles, Pastor of International Gospel Center in Ecorse, Michigan, were consecrated to the office of Apostle by Reverend J. L. Alaman. The Deliverance Ministry was growing and would eventually include between 40 and 50 affiliated churches worldwide.

In 1973 DEC Ministries purchased its present headquarters church, the former Temple B’nai Abraham at 621 Clinton Avenue, in the Clinton Hill section of Newark, New Jersey. Apostle Skinner paid $250,000 in cash to the B’nai Abraham Congregation. Deliverance now had room to grow as the main sanctuary seated 2,000 people. Apostle Skinner’s vision was flourishing: God’s deliverance was indeed taking the land.

After having laid the foundation and spreading the Deliverance Ministry around the world, Apostle Arturo Arthur Skinner died suddenly on March 20, 1975 and was buried in his hometown of Brooklyn, New York. Three months later, in June of 1975, Apostle Ralph G. Shammah Nichol formally succeeded him as Senior Pastor and Overseer of DEC Ministries.

Edited and condensed by Rosalind Nichol, from portions of the following publications: “Commemorating 7^th Anniversary Deliverance Evangelistic Centers, Inc.” Supervised by Rev. Arturo Skinner, printed and copyright 1965, South Hackensack, NJ: Custombook, Inc. “When I Met The Master Arturo A. Skinner” Lockwood, Lelia, 1976, New York, NY: Park Publishing Company.

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