Rev. Bryant Wardell Raines | Screenshot: Facebook/New Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church Shockwaves of grief are still rippling through the black Baptist community in Georgia after Rev. Bryant Wardell Raines, a prominent local activist and leader of the New Pilgrim Missionary Baptist Church in Macon, died last Wednesday from COVID-19 complications. In his announcement of Raines’ death, Rev. Anthony Q. Corbett Sr., president of the General Missionary Baptist Convention of Georgia, an affiliate of the National Baptist Convention, said the late pastor had recently become the president of the convention’s sixth district. “Your prayers and well wishes are requested for his wife, Sister Ilashia Raines along with their family, and the congregation of New Pilgrim Baptist Church,” Corbett said.