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Rev. Dr Katie Geneva Cannon, the first African-American woman ordained in the Presbyterian Church (USA), died on 8 August at age 68.
She was the Annie Scales Rogers professor of Christian Ethics at Union Presbyterian Seminary, and a foremost scholar of the womanist movement.
Beloved by the seminary community as a scholar, teacher, and friend, Cannon announced in June that she had been diagnosed with acute leukemia.
The founder of the Center for Womanist Leadership, Cannon was a pioneer in the study and work of womanist theology and ethics. She lectured nationally and internationally on womanist theology and social ethics, and is the author and editor of numerous articles and books.
Cannon was ordained on 24 April 1974, in Shelby, North Carolina, by the Catawba Presbytery. The United Presbyterian Church listed 154 white women as ordained clergy at that time, according to the Presbyterian Office of Information.
She received her bachelor of science from Barber-Scotia College, master of divinity from Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary, and master and doctor of philosophy degrees from Union Theological Seminary in New York.
When the Circle of African Women Theologians was launched in September 1989 in Accra, Ghana with the encouragement of the WCC Programme on Theological Education, Cannon was there to provide ecumenical accompaniment.
She began teaching at Union Theological Seminary in 2001 and received many awards for her work.
In April, on the 44th anniversary of her ordination, she co-organized a womanist conference, led by 14 African-American women scholars, that critiqued the complex cultural locations and histories of today’s political domain.
World Council of Churches (WCC) acting general secretary Prof. Dr Isabel Apawo Phiri offered condolences to Cannon’s family on behalf of the WCC global fellowship.
“Rev. Dr Katie Cannon’s legacy lives on in the great encouragement she shared and the outstanding example she set for anyone seeking to contribute against a tide of false assumptions and injustices,” she said. “We recognize that Katie Cannon carried a vision and blazed a trail of freedom and justice that transcends the lines of faith traditions.”
Read also:
Roll Justice – Bible study by Rev. Dr Katie G. Cannon for the WCC 10th Assembly
