wfn.org | Feminist, Anti-Racist, Revolutionary Sees Hope for Growth and Unity

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15-June-1998 
GA98025 
 
 
Feminist, Anti-Racist, Revolutionary Sees Hope for Growth and Unity 
 
by Allison Politinsky 
 
CHARLOTTE, N.C.--Katie Cannon, the first African-American woman to be 
ordained as a pastor in the Presbyterian Church (U.S.A.), says there is 
hope for racial unity and racial/ethnic growth in the Presbyterian Church 
(U.S.A.) That is if the denomination takes a serious, systemic approach to 
breaking down the barriers. 
    The initiative being proposed at this year's General Assembly-- to make 
the denomination more inclusive-- "cannot be a lukewarm Band-Aid," Cannon 
said. "One of the things people have to do is to get honest about the 
history of racism and about how there are different standards for [people 
of other races] even in friendships." 
    The associate professor of religion at Temple University in 
Philadelphia deals regularly with preconceptions of racism by teaching 
workshops over an 18-month period to groups of individuals trying to face 
their beliefs head on. 
    "When I started this process, I knew I was racist but I didn't know how 
hard it was to change," Cannon said. "It is not just about changing a 
personality one on one, but we need to take on the systemic prejudices. You 
need to raise people's consciousness." 
    Some people honestly do not understand that by being born male, or by 
being born white they are not "ordained by God" to be superior, Cannon 
continued. These notions are falsehoods that must be understood and 
revealed. Those who have learned how to face their own racism have to pass 
on the lessons to others like becoming "pebbles in the pond." Even with a 
committed core, she said, it will not be easy to change the system on a 
grand scale. 
    "Those who are oppressing others have some power vested in the existing 
system," according to Cannon. " What is it going to cost me to make this 
change? If the benefit doesn't outweigh the cost, people are not willing to 
make the changes." 
    A graduate of Johnson C. Smith Theological Seminary in Atlanta and 
Union Theological Seminary in New York, Cannon previously taught at New 
York Theological Seminary, Harvard Divinity School and the Episcopal 
Divinity School in Cambridge. 
    Cannon attended the Voices of Sophia breakfast Monday morning and did a 
book signing at the Voices of Sophia booth for her newly published "Katie's 
Cannon: Womanism and the Soul of the Black Community."  She is also the 
author or editor of "Black Womanist Ethics, God's Fierce Whimsey," and "The 
Implications of Feminism for Theological Education." 
    Ordained on April 23, 1974 in Catawba Presbytery, Cannon has provided 
leadership in feminism and anti-racism for nearly 25 years. She teaches the 
areas of  liberation theology, and "anything with race, sex, and class," 
and calls herself the "designated revolutionary in residence" at Temple 
University. 

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