Since 1794, Mom Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church has been on the forefront of historical past in Philadelphia and the nation. In November, the church and denomination took one other first step, making historical past — and HERstory — by appointing The Rev. Carolyn C. Cavaness as the primary girl pastor within the 237-year historical past of the church.
Cavaness brings a wealth of remarkable public service to her new ministerial function. A fourth-generation minister, she graduated from Barnard School of Columbia College and Union Theological Seminary. Cavaness was additionally the deputy finance director for Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton’s historic marketing campaign for U.S. President in 2016.
Beforehand, she had served because the pastor of First AME Church, Sharon Hill, and Bethel A.M.E. Church of Ardmore since 2014.
Alongside together with her duties at Mom Bethel, she serves on a number of civic organizations, together with Black Clergy of Philadelphia and Neighborhood.
Billy Penn caught up with Rev. Cavaness and she or he spoke about her transition — and first Christmas — on the historic church.
What was the method of your appointment to Mom Bethel?
Cavaness: In Methodism, we imagine in an itinerant system, so we’re despatched to expenses [churches] by our bishops. We make ourselves out there for the place our items and graces are wanted. So Bishop Samuel Lawrence Inexperienced Sr., was led to ship me to Mom Bethel.
So ministers are chosen to go to church buildings yearly by presiding Bishops?
Cavaness: Sure. We get a pastoral appointment yearly, however we’re at all times out there to maneuver to different church buildings. Once more, we take the vow to the church, so we make ourselves out there. You recognize, this ministry is just not mine. It’s a lot extra in regards to the good of the work of Kingdom constructing and we’re referred to as to the world. To borrow from John Wesley, “The world is our parish.”
How did you are feeling when your appointment grew to become official?
Cavaness: There’s nonetheless a degree of shock that I really feel I’m the chief. I’m nonetheless getting over that and dealing by means of it that I’m entrusted with this worldwide treasure. We’re a religion group, and Mom Bethel has deep that means to the group. I really feel like I’m a sacred caretaker. I had somebody the opposite day inform me that “Mom Bethel is simply Mom Bethel.” We honor what this constructing stands for. We had some individuals come from Texas and we had been in a position to inform the story of the stained glass home windows. Even in my workplace, you understand, I’ve a kneeler right here that’s in all probability 100-something years outdated after I go contact the pews upstairs. Simply to be surrounded by a lot historical past has me in awe. Additionally, the extent of encouragement, of assist that I’ve acquired from throughout so many denominational traces, and all walks of life. When individuals within the neighborhood see me, they’re like, “Welcome Rev!” It’s been inspiring.
As a household who has been part of the AME Church for generations, how did your loved ones reply to the information?
Cavaness: My dad handed away years in the past. My mother stated your father would have by no means thought that his baby could be the pastor of Mom Bethel. For her, she will be able to’t imagine that it actually occurred. They devoted me to God as a baby they usually knew I used to be going to be a preacher. I had accepted the Mom Church. My first cousin was at my first service and he placed on Fb, “When your first cousin turns into the pastor of the Mom Church, African Methodist, you gotta go assist.”
As we transfer into 2025, what are your ideas on doing ministry underneath the brand new Presidential administration?
Cavaness: We’re not new to this. We have now needed to serve underneath different administrations that had been demonizing, and dehumanizing, and have at all times risen to the highest. We all know methods to make “bricks from straw.” So if something, I’m discovering this because the Black church buildings need to be who we’re and be unapologetic about that. We have now to nearly triple and quadruple our efforts of how we affirm our individuals, and the way we assist our communities. Definitely, we’re not working away and hiding from the potential evils of this new regime.
What I say to our individuals is to attenuate their consumption of CNN and MSNBC. We have now to reroute that vitality. At Mom Bethel, we tackle the tenets of the Free African Society that was created by Absalom Jones to be self-determined, self-sufficient, and self-reliant. If the moms and dads of religion had been in a position to do what they did 200, 300 years in the past, there isn’t a motive we are able to’t stand at the moment. From 1791 to the current, the ministry of Mom Bethel stands as a testomony to that. We’ve been in a position to prevail. To have this treasure, and with the ability to climate the recession and melancholy, Jim Crow, Emmett Until, Trayvon Martin, Breonna Taylor and so many extra, and we’re nonetheless standing. Persons are nonetheless feeling a degree of refuge, assist, and luxury right here they usually count on that from us. You recognize, “Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be referred to as the youngsters of God.”
We are actually within the season of Creation and Christmas. What has your message been to church?
Cavaness: So I’ve at all times been a practitioner of Creation. The Christmas season is a tough one for me. My dad started his transition and my grandmother handed on Christmas Day. So I’ve been reflecting on the true that means of the season. With all of the consumerism, we’re coming with a contra message of hope, peace, love, and pleasure. That is what the world wants.
With the rhetoric that was spewed in the course of the election, persons are afraid. Letters are being despatched residence with mother and father about deportation. Persons are grappling with the economic system already. So now we have to provide you with one other message that uplifts all God’s kids for the reason for Christ.