CINCINNATI (AP) -- Al Gore drew hearty cheers from delegates to the African Methodist Episcopal Church's General Conference, but a senior bishop said the nation's oldest black church was not ready to endorse the vice president's campaign for president.

"We don't play partisan politics in the AME Church, and we will defer making any comments or endorsement of the vice president's political aspirations," Senior Bishop John Hurst Adams said after Gore addressed the group Wednesday night.

There were cheers when Gore talked about traditional Democratic themes -- Social Security, affirmative action and raising the minimum wage -- and issues that Gore has been hitting hard lately, including free pre-school and the expansion of Medicare to cover prescription drugs.

He said the Clinton-Gore administration deserved credit for raising incomes in black households and said delegates could keep the nation "on the right track" by helping elect him.

"We have made good progress, but you ain't seen nothin' yet," Gore said. "We're going to higher ground."

Founded in Philadelphia in 1787, the AME Church has 2.5 million members in the United States, Africa, Canada, England and the Caribbean. About 25,000 members are attending the General Conference, which meets every four years and governs the denomination.

Delegates vote Monday on whether to elect the first female bishop in the denomination's 213 years. Women have been running for the post since the 1970s, and leaders said there finally could be enough support to elect a woman.

"Wouldn't it be great if we could get one?" asked Delores Williams, 51, a delegate from Panama City, Fla. "Whoever she is, I'm for her."

The Rev. Carolyn Tyler Guidry, a presiding elder in Los Angeles who supervises 19 AME churches, and the Rev. Vashti McKenzie, pastor of Payne Memorial AME Church in Baltimore, are among 41 candidates for two bishop positions vacated by retirement.

A majority of the 1,800 delegates is required to elect a bishop. Guidry stood for election as bishop in 1996; McKenzie is making her first run.