Kindred in Christ,

I am excited to conclude our series Rooted: Rediscovering Our Connection to God and All Things this Sunday. Each week we considered a different Black hero from our Christian faith and allowed their witness to help us reflect on what it means to be rooted and transformed by God’s grace today.

This week we will consider the faith, ministry, and activism of the first Black woman to ever be ordained in the African Methodist Episcopal Church. Jarena Lee (1783-1869) came to the faith after moving to Philadelphia as a young adult in 1807 and was inspired by the powerful preaching of Bishop Richard Allen (founder of the A.M.E. church). It was there that she decided to be baptized and identified a calling to preach the gospel.

Initially, however, Bishop Allen refused to grant Lee permission to preach because the church banned female ministers. But Lee was driven by the intensity of her calling, so she began delivering sermons wherever she could—in open fields, town squares, and even in her own home.

Then one day, while at a Sunday worship service at Bishop Allen’s church, Lee noticed that a guest speaker was struggling with his message—so she sprung to action, picking up where he left off to deliver her own testimony. Bishop Allen was so moved and impressed by Lee’s preaching and bold witness that he publicly endorsed her and admitted that he had been wrong about women in ministry. Lee was soon ordained, becoming the first woman preacher in the AME Church.

Lee’s preaching ministry spanned three decades and greatly intersected with her equal rights advocacy and her powerful leadership within the abolitionist movement. Before her death in 1849, Jarena Lee became the first Black woman to publish an autobiographical memoir in the United States, The Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee.  

Join us this Sunday as we reflect further on the witness of Jarena Lee and what it means to live rooted by the same empowering grace.

Alongside you,

Rev. Paul Ortiz