RAMAH Gathering International Ministries 

     Bishop Damien LeChateau Sneed accepted Jesus Christ as his personal Lord and Saviour at the age of 8 years old in 1987 and was baptized at Good Shepherd Baptist Church in Augusta, GA, under Reverend Clarence Moore and Pastor Emeritus Reverend Essie Mae McIntyre. Sneed’s home church, Good Shepherd Baptist Church, initially a nondenominational church, was founded in April 1940 in a house with Reverend Essie Mae McIntyre elected as its first pastor. Rev. McIntyre served as pastor of Good Shepherd for 46 years. Reverend Clarence Moore was installed as the second pastor in the church’s history in 1986. Damien was active as a junior usher, Sunday school, and pianist for the Children’s Choir, Senior Choir, Sarah Frazier Choir, Mable Hunt Young Adult Choir, and Male Chorus from the age of 5 years old until he graduated from high school in 1996. After matriculating to Howard University on a full scholarship from SONY Music with a major in Piano Performance, Sneed served under Archbishop Alfred A. Owens, Sr. and Co-Pastor Susie Carol Thomas Owens at Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church in Washington, DC. He served as a musician for the Male Praise Team, Adult Praise Team, Young Adult Praise Team, Alfred A. Owens Chorale, Sanctuary Choir, Male Chorus, and Youth Concert Choir (YCC). He traveled on the road to accompany Archbishop Owens and Co-Pastor Susie Owens for several preaching engagements around the country. Sneed enrolled in the Calvary Bible Institute and studied First Year with Co-Pastor Susie Owens and Leadership with Elder Delavago Scruggs from 1997 – 1998. 

 

     Damien Sneed received his call into ministry on December 31, 1997, in Atlanta, GA, while attending the IMPACT Conference by Campus Crusade for Christ. He served as House Prophet and Minister of Music at Promise Ministries International Destiny Christian Cathedral Family Worship Center in Washington, DC, under Bishop Thomas Weeks, Jr. from 1998 - 1999. Sneed’s first sermon occurred at Michigan Park Christian Church across from Howard School of Divinity in Washington, DC, for a Saturday prayer breakfast under former Howard University School of Divinity professor Dr. Delores Carpenter. The message was “What’s In Your Hand” from Exodus 4:1 - 5 KJV. While on a Howard University Jazz Ensemble tour to the U.S. Virgin Islands in November 1998, Sneed preached his first sermon overseas at a Church of God in Prophecy in St. Thomas, which birthed his international ministry. Before graduating from Howard University, he served under Archbishop Ralph L. Dennis (Presiding Prelate of Kingdom Fellowship Covenant Ministries in Townson, MD, while a graduate student at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, MD.  Sneed was a Minister-in-Training and was groomed further in ministry and the prophetic by Apostle Ivory Bostick & Prophet Sandra Jones from May 2000 - May 2001. 

 

     May 2001 proved to be a pivotal time for Sneed, as he moved to New York City to join the Apostle James Duncan’s School of Prophets in Bronx, NY, at Bishop Michael Lancelot Marcano’s church, Creston Avenue Baptist Church. Sneed served on the Prophetic Team and was Minister of Music from May 2001 to August 2002. Bishop Marcano and Apostle Duncan ordained him as an Elder in July 2002. While at Creston, he traveled to Guyana, South America, for his first ministry missions crusade sharing the gospel in Word and song in several cities. Sneed matriculated into New York University in May 2001 to pursue his master’s degree in Music Technology: Scoring for Film & Multimedia and graduated in Spring 2006.

 

     Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, Sneed submitted under the covering of Bishop Iona E. Locke and Christ Centered Ministries Assembly in January 2003. During that time, Sneed served in numerous capacities of ministry, including: Prophet and Minister of Music at Crown Ministries International under Bishop Jonathan I. Shaw in Brooklyn, NY from August 2003 - November 2005; matriculated into the Interdenominational Theological Seminary in Atlanta, GA as a Master of Divinity in Theology candidate in the Fall 2009 semester; served as Music Director, Co-Director of Chorale and Guest Minister at Greater Allen AME Cathedral of New York from December 2005 - March 28, 2010; was Assistant Pastor of Tehillim Ministries (Brooklyn, NY) under Apostle Garelle Solomon from March 2010 - August 2010; received an Honorary Doctorate in Sacred Music from the Christian Bible Institute & Seminary in May 2010. 

 

     Sneed was re-affirmed and ordained as an Elder on Saturday, September 30, 2012, by Bishop Iona E. Locke at Abyssinia Christ Centered Ministries in Southfield, MI. He founded the Levites’ Gathering on June 5 - 7, 2014, at Abyssinian Christ Centered Ministries in Southfield, MI, and it subsequently traveled to the following locations: Washington, DC on June 10 - 13, 2015, at Greater Mt. Calvary Holy Church; New York City on June 8 - 11, 2016 at Cathedral at Greater Faith in Bronx, NY; and Madrid, Spain on December 15 - 19, 2017. Sneed completed and received certification as an Overseer from the Joint College of African-American Pentecostal Bishops in Cleveland, OH, in March 2016 and was consecrated as an Overseer in the Lord’s Church (Christ Centered Ministries Assembly) under Bishop Iona Locke on Saturday, August 12, 2017. 

 

     On December 19, 2020, Sneed’s spiritual mother, Bishop Iona E. Locke, transitioned. Following the leading of the Holy Spirit, he established and launched Ramah Gathering International Ministries (RGIM) on November 16, 2021. Ramah Gathering is an international fellowship of churches, leaders, parachurches, and businesses with a mandate to equip, disciple, and mobilize all in fellowship to fulfill their God-ordained destiny with an apostolic and prophetic mandate for the Kingdom with its headquarters in New York City. Sneed officially returned under the covering of his spiritual father, Archbishop Ralph L. Dennis, on March 12, 2022. On Friday, July 14, 2023, at the 30th Annual Kingdom Fellowship Covenant Ministries Conference and Holy Convocation, Damien Sneed was consecrated as a Bishop in the Lord’s Church by his spiritual father Archbishop Ralph L. Dennis and installed as the Presider of Ramah Gathering International Ministries.

 

     As a multi-genre recording artist and instrumentalist, Damien LeChateau Sneed is a pianist, vocalist, organist, composer, conductor, arranger, producer, and arts educator whose work spans multiple genres. He has worked with jazz, classical, pop, and R&B legends, including the late Aretha Franklin and Jessye Norman, Wynton Marsalis, Stevie Wonder, Diana Ross, Ashford & Simpson, J’Nai Bridges, Lawrence Brownlee, the Clark Sisters, Richard Smallwood, and many others. In addition, Sneed has served as music director for several Grammy Award-winning gospel artists and BET’s hit gospel competition, Sunday Best – Season Four. Sneed is a 2014 Sphinx Medal of Excellence recipient. He is a 2020 Dove Award winner and a 2021 NAACP Image Award winner for his work as a featured producer and writer on the Clark Sisters’ newest project, “The Return”. Sneed recently joined the esteemed faculty of Howard University and the Juilliard School. His other professional affiliations have included the faculties of the Manhattan School of Music, Berklee School of Music, Michigan State University, the Clive Davis Institute of Recorded Music at New York University's Tisch School of the Arts, Nyack College, and the City University of New York (CUNY). Sneed is featured in the award-winning PBS documentary Everyone Has a Place, which stars Wynton Marsalis, capturing Sneed’s journey as the musical conductor of the historic tour performances of Marsalis’ “Abyssinian Mass” featuring Sneed’s own Chorale Le Chateau. In 2015 he established the Damien Sneed Foundation Performing Arts Institute. Sneed is the founder and artistic director of Chorale Le Chateau. In 2018, Sneed was commissioned by Houston Grand Opera to compose MARIAN’S SONG, an opera about the life of Marian Anderson. In 2020, Alvin Ailey Dance Theater commissioned Sneed to create an original score for Testament, commemorating the 60th Anniversary of Revelations. In 2021, he was commissioned by the Opera Theatre of Saint Louis to compose THE TONGUE & THE LASH, an opera imagining a post-debate conversation between James Baldwin and William Buckley. OTSL commissioned Sneed to compose a reimagined adaptation of Scott Joplin’s opera, TREEMONISHA, which premiered on May 20, 2023. As a conductor, he has debuted with several symphony orchestras, including the Springfield Symphony Orchestra, the Stockton Symphony Orchestra, the Gateways Music Festival Chamber Players, the Harlem Chamber Players Orchestra, and his own ensemble, Orchestra of Tomorrow. He was recently signed to Apple Music Classical & Platoon Records (London) with his original classical composition, Sequestered Thoughts, as his first single commissioned by the Library of Congress with Sneed on solo piano. His newest recording project, Kaleidoscope, featuring the solo piano music of African American composers, will be released in Spring 2024 and graduates with his Doctor of Musical Arts (DMA) in Orchestral Conducting this summer from USC.