{"id":12100,"date":"2024-11-18T13:06:43","date_gmt":"2024-11-18T18:06:43","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/?p=12100"},"modified":"2024-11-18T13:06:43","modified_gmt":"2024-11-18T18:06:43","slug":"after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership.html","title":{"rendered":"After 230 Years, AME Church Elects First Woman in Leadership"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_12079\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-12079\" style=\"width: 1200px\" class=\"wp-caption alignnone\"><img decoding=\"async\" class=\"size-full wp-image-12079\" src=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/11\/AME-first-woman-leadership_credit-Mother-Bethel-AME-Church-Facebook.jpg\" alt=\"\" width=\"1200\" height=\"900\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-12079\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Mother Bethel AME Church \/ Facebook<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<p>A 237-year-old African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has made headlines after it elected its first woman to serve in leadership. Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia announced it had elected Rev. Carolyn C. Caveness to replace its former pastor, Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler. Tyler had served as head pastor for 16 years. Caveness had been leading at Bethel AME Church in Ardmore, Pennsylvania since 2014. Mother Bethel made the announcement, stating, \u201cRev. Cavaness brings a wealth of experience, a deep commitment to social justice, and a dynamic vision for the future of the church. Under Rev. Cavaness\u2019 leadership, the church aims to strengthen its commitment to its mission of faith, service, and justice.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Caveness comes from a long line of pastors, with her father, grandfather, and great-grandfather having all served in the role. She graduated from Barnard College of Columbia University of New York City, with a major in urban studies and a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary of New York City. She has worked with a number of interfaith community efforts and as a deputy finance director for Hilary Clinton\u2019s 2016 presidential campaign. She received her preaching license at 15 and helped serve churches with her father throughout her childhood.<\/p>\n<p>Holding on to her late father\u2019s Bible during her first sermon, she called the moment \u201csurreal.\u201d \u201cI had his Bible, and I had that view and his voice of, \u2018Wow, my daughter made it to the mother of the A.M.E. Church. It was surreal,\u201d she told <a href=\"https:\/\/www.inquirer.com\/news\/mother-bethel-ame-carolyn-cavaness-pastor-20241110.html#:~:text=The%20Rev.%20Carolyn%20Cavaness%20stood,years%20%E2%80%94%20brought%20her%20to%20tears.\"><em>The Philadelphia Inquirer<\/em><\/a>. She <a href=\"https:\/\/www.christianpost.com\/news\/woman-pastor-leads-historic-ame-church-for-first-time-its-history.html\">spoke to her congregation<\/a> of her gratitude and hope for the future. \u201cI stand before you as a new pastor before new people. But the same God that has kept us yesterday and is keeping us right now is the same God that will keep us in the days that will unfold.\u201d She added, \u201cI\u2019m looking forward to working together; I\u2019m looking forward to continuing in the long legacy as we stand as the mother of them all. I stand here with a debt of gratitude.\u201d She recalled Mother Bethel\u2019s history, calling it \u201camazing.\u201d \u201cMother Bethel, we are an amazing place. Ain\u2019t no place on Earth like this place. Because you don\u2019t have nobody unless you have your mother. As things are being stricken down, there is a place on Sixth and Lombard that will stand.\u201d The congregation spoke with excitement of Caveness\u2019s election, with church member Fran Jenkins saying, \u201cIt brings a message that, no matter what is going on in the world, no matter what our president says, there is a future.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>A 237-year-old African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has made headlines after it elected its first woman to serve in leadership. Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia announced it had elected Rev. Carolyn C. Caveness to replace its former pastor, Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler. Tyler had served as head pastor for 16 years. Caveness had been&hellip;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":627,"featured_media":12079,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"fbia_status":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[141,140],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-12100","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-america","category-church"],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v23.9 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>After 230 Years, AME Church Elects First Woman in Leadership<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"After 230 Years, AME Church Elects First Woman in Leadership\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"A 237-year-old African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has made headlines after it elected its first woman to serve in leadership. Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia announced it had elected Rev. Carolyn C. Caveness to replace its former pastor, Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler. Tyler had served as head pastor for 16 years. Caveness had been&hellip;\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Christ News Today\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2024-11-18T18:06:43+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/11\/AME-first-woman-leadership_credit-Mother-Bethel-AME-Church-Facebook.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"1200\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"900\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Cecilia Buchanan\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary_large_image\" \/>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"After 230 Years, AME Church Elects First Woman in Leadership","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership.html","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"After 230 Years, AME Church Elects First Woman in Leadership","og_description":"A 237-year-old African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church has made headlines after it elected its first woman to serve in leadership. Mother Bethel AME Church in Philadelphia announced it had elected Rev. Carolyn C. Caveness to replace its former pastor, Rev. Mark Kelly Tyler. Tyler had served as head pastor for 16 years. Caveness had been&hellip;","og_url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership.html","og_site_name":"Christ News Today","article_published_time":"2024-11-18T18:06:43+00:00","og_image":[{"width":1200,"height":900,"url":"https:\/\/wp-media.beliefnet.com\/sites\/409\/2024\/11\/AME-first-woman-leadership_credit-Mother-Bethel-AME-Church-Facebook.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Cecilia Buchanan","twitter_card":"summary_large_image","schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership.html","url":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/christnewstoday\/2024\/11\/after-230-years-ame-church-elects-first-woman-in-leadership.html","name":"After 230 Years, AME Church Elects First Woman in 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