(RNS) — In early November, the Rev. Carolyn Cavaness was already bracing for a big task — preaching the closing sermon at the fall convocation of the First Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church in Philadelphia.
But as she was about to go the pulpit, she was surprised to hear she had received a much grander assignment: The district’s bishop introduced her as the new pastor of the nearby Mother Bethel AME Church, the historically Black denomination’s founding congregation.
Mother Bethel was founded by Richard Allen in 1791 after Allen, a Black lay preacher at Philadelphia’s St. George’s Methodist Episcopal Church, saw a white official at the church pull his fellow Black preacher, Absalom Jones, to his feet as Jones knelt in prayer.
Cavaness is the first woman to lead Mother Bethel.
A fourth-generation preacher, Cavaness, 41, long knew she was going to enter the ministry. “I had a preacher’s license before I had a driver’s license,” she said in an interview.
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The Newark, New Jersey, native moved just 10 miles to her new church from her old one, Bethel AME Church of Ardmore, Pennsylvania, where she had helped 2,000 people get COVID-19 vaccinations during the pandemic and partnered with other organizations in the Philadelphia suburb to distribute 800 prepared meals for an annual community “Friendsgiving” outreach.
She thinks of the pastor’s role, Cavaness said, as a “designated maidservant,” a phrase she uses as she prays before preaching. “I’m here to serve,” she said. “I’m here at this table that God set aside for me to impart and to bring his Word to his people.”
The Rev. Carolyn Cavaness, center, leads a worship service at Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. (Photo by Michael Morgan)
She has deepened her experience with work outside the denomination, having served as a fundraiser for her alma mater, Barnard College, and as deputy finance director for Hillary Clinton’s presidential campaign.
Still, Cavaness calls her appointment “mind-boggling.”
“Who would have ever thought?’’ she said on her 17th day as the 53rd pastor of the church. “It’s such a victory on so many different levels.”
Cavaness spoke with RNS about adjusting to her role, about remembering those who came before her ,and about tasks Black clergy like her may have ahead with a second Trump administration.
The interview was edited for length and clarity.
What has it felt like for the last couple of weeks to be the new pastor of Mother Bethel AME, especially given that you are the first woman pastor at this historic church?
I am still processing. I’m still in shock. I am greatly humbled. I am just feeling a sense of, like, wow. I know I did not arrive at this space on my own. So many have mentored me and pushed me and have trusted me. And so I just feel a debt of gratitude to be at such a historic treasure, not only for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, but for America, for the world.
The Rev. Carolyn Cavaness is the first woman to lead Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia. (Photo © Jameel Morrison/jameelphoto.com)
In your first sermon as pastor there, you said you “stand on the shoulders” of other women who came before you, including church member and early preacher Jarena Lee. How has her story informed your ministry?
She was unapologetic about her call. To see the full circle: She’s born Feb. 11, 1783. I’m April 4, 1983, and so 200 years later, plus-minus two months. We as a denomination in 2016, upon the bicentennial of the incorporation of the AME Church, granted her ordination posthumously. To see this coming full circle and what this represents, not only for the African Methodist Episcopal Church, but for other denominations, for other spheres that women can lead, women will lead, and women deserve opportunity, for doors to be opened, and can do it.
