Pastoral Reflections On Womanism by Rev. Dr. Leslie Callahan
In 2009, the Reverend Dr. Leslie D. Callahan was called to be the 5th and first female pastor of the historic 119-year-old St. Paul’s Baptist Church in Philadelphia. Callahan, who was once faculty at the University of Pennsylvania, leads her congregation with a focus on advocacy and community activism and a womanist slant. Born in the coal fields of West Virginia, Pastor Callahan studied at Harvard and attended Union Seminary soon after. From there she earned from Ph.D. in American Religions from Princeton University.
Now Pastor Callahan advocates for lives at the margins in her role as head of the historic church. For Harriet's founder and editor-in-chief, Kimberly Foster, caught up with Pastor Callahan to discuss her work and what it means to be a faith leader in the midst of #BlackLivesMatter.