Kelly Delaine Brown Douglas is an

African-American African Americans (also referred to as Black Americans and Afro-Americans) are an Race and ethnicity in the United States, ethnic group consisting of Americans with partial or total ancestry from sub-Saharan Africa. The term "African American ...

Episcopal priest, womanist theologian, and the inaugural Dean of the

Episcopal Divinity School The Episcopal Divinity School (EDS) is a theological school in New York City that trains students for service with the Episcopal Church. It is affiliated with the Union Theological Seminary. Students who enroll in the EDS at Union Anglican st ...

at Union Theological Seminary. She is also the Canon Theologian at the

Washington National Cathedral The Cathedral Church of Saint Peter and Saint Paul in the City and Diocese of Washington, commonly known as Washington National Cathedral, is an American cathedral of the Episcopal Church. The cathedral is located in Washington, D.C., the ca ...

. She has written five books, including ''The Black Christ'' (1994), ''Black Bodies and Black Church: A Blues Slant'' (2012) and ''Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God'' (2015). Her book ''Sexuality in the Black Church: A Womanist Perspective'' (1999) was groundbreaking for openly addressing homophobia within the black church.

Biography

Early life

Kelly Brown was raised in

Dayton Dayton () is the sixth-largest city in the U.S. state of Ohio and the county seat of Montgomery County. A small part of the city extends into Greene County. The 2020 U.S. census estimate put the city population at 137,644, while Greater Da ...

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. She grew up in a middle-class family, her father was a professional, and her mother stayed home to take care of her children. She attended college at

Denison University Denison University is a private liberal arts college in Granville, Ohio. One of the earliest colleges established in the former Northwest Territory, Denison University was founded in 1831. The college was first called the Granville Literary and ...

in Granville, Ohio, where she pursued a

Bachelor of Science A Bachelor of Science (BS, BSc, SB, or ScB; from the Latin ') is a bachelor's degree awarded for programs that generally last three to five years. The first university to admit a student to the degree of Bachelor of Science was the University of ...

degree in psychology. She was active as a student leader and served on a search committee for a new president of the university in 1976. She was elected to the

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society, and graduated summa cum laude in 1979. She later served on the Denison Alumni Council.

Graduate education and ordination

Following her college graduation, Douglas moved to

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

to attend Union Theological Seminary. She graduated with a Master of Divinity (M.Div.) in 1982. On September 1, 1983, she was ordained by Walter Dennis as an Episcopal priest at St. Margaret's Episcopal Church in the

Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio The Episcopal Diocese of Southern Ohio is the diocese of the Episcopal Church in the United States of America with jurisdiction over 40 counties in southern Ohio Ohio () is a U.S. state, state in the Midwestern United States, Midwestern regio ...

Women's ordination The ordination of women to ministerial or priestly office is an increasingly common practice among some contemporary major religious groups. It remains a controversial issue in certain Christian traditions and most denominations in which "ordin ...

was officially approved in the Episcopal Church USA in 1976, and the first woman to be ordained in the Southern Ohio Diocese was Doris Ellen Mote. Douglas was the first black woman to be ordained in the diocese, and one of the first ten black women ordained in the Episcopal Church USA. After earning her M.Div., Douglas stayed on to pursue a Ph.D. at Union. She completed her doctorate in Systematic Theology in 1988, studying with Professor

James Cone James is a common English language surname and given name: *James (name), the typically masculine first name James * James (surname), various people with the last name James James or James City may also refer to: People * King James (disambiguat ...

, a pioneer in black theology.

Academic career

At the start of her academic career, Douglas found a position as Assistant Professor of Religion at

Edward Waters College Edward Waters University is a private Christian historically Black university in Jacksonville, Florida. It was founded in 1866 by members of the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME Church) as a school to educate freedmen and their children. ...

in Jacksonville, Florida. However, she soon accepted an offer to teach at the

Howard University School of Divinity Howard University (Howard) is a Private university, private, University charter#Federal, federally chartered historically black research university in Washington, D.C. It is Carnegie Classification of Institutions of Higher Education, classifie ...

, where she was Associate Professor of Theology from 1987 to 2001. In addition to teaching, Douglas contributed to the development of womanist theological discourse through her writings. While at Howard, she published her first two books: ''Black Christ'', in 1993, and ''Sexuality and the Black Church'', in 1998. Her most well known work, ''Sexuality and the Black Church'', is considered to be the first book to openly address the issue of

homophobia Homophobia encompasses a range of negative attitude (psychology), attitudes and feelings toward homosexuality or people who are identified or perceived as being lesbian, gay or bisexual. It has been defined as contempt, prejudice, aversion, h ...

in the Black Church from a womanist perspective. In 2001, Douglas left Howard to join the religion department at

Goucher College Goucher College ( ') is a private liberal arts college in Towson, Maryland. It was chartered in 1885 by a conference in Baltimore led by namesake John F. Goucher and local leaders of the Methodist Episcopal Church.https://archive.org/details/h ...

, a small liberal arts college in

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. As the Elizabeth Connolly Todd Distinguished Professor of Religion, and later the Susan B. Morgan Professor of Religion, she taught at Goucher for six years, and still retains professor emerita status. She continued writing and publishing, completing three additional books, as well as numerous articles and book chapters. ''Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God'' was written by Douglas in response to the death of

Trayvon Martin Trayvon Benjamin Martin (February 5, 1995 – February 26, 2012) was a 17-year-old African-American from Miami Gardens, Florida, who was fatally shot in Sanford, Florida, by George Zimmerman, a 28-year-old Hispanic American. Martin had accompa ...

, and analyzes the "systemic failure to hold individuals accountable for racist aggression and murder." In 2018, she became the inaugural dean for Episcopal Divinity School at Union Theological Seminary. She is the first African-American woman to head a seminary affiliated with the Episcopal Church.

Ecclesiastical ministry

For twenty years, Douglas served as an associate priest at the Holy Comforter Episcopal Church in Washington, DC. Then, in 2017, she joined the staff of the Washington National Cathedral as the Canon Theologian. In this role, she helped lead discussions on current issues with the congregation, providing theological background and interpretation. In 2015, a controversy emerged over two stained glass windows in the Cathedral that honored Andrew "Stonewall" Jackson and Robert E. Lee. Douglas was part of a task force assigned to study the issue and make recommendations on what to do with the windows. In 2017, after two years of discussions among the cathedral worshipping community, the cathedral chapter voted to remove the windows. In 2019, Douglas preached at the consecration of Kimberly Lucas as bishop of the

Episcopal Diocese of Colorado Episcopal may refer to: *Of or relating to a bishop, an overseer in the Christian church *Episcopate, the see of a bishop – a diocese *Episcopal Church (disambiguation), any church with "Episcopal" in its name ** Episcopal Church (United State ...

. Lucas is the first woman bishop and first African-American bishop in the diocese.

Family

Douglas is married to Lamont Douglas, and they have one son, Desmond.

Awards

In 1995, Douglas received the Grace Lyman Alumnae Award by the Women's Studies Department at Denison University. In 2000, she was awarded Denison's Alumni Citation. While teaching at Goucher College, she was awarded the Goucher College Caroline Doebler Bruckerl Award. She is also a recipient of the Anna Julia Haywood Cooper Award, given by the Union of Black Episcopalians.

Published works

*''Black Christ'' (1993) - *''Sexuality and the Black Church'' (1998) - *''What's Faith Got to Do with It: Black Bodies/Christian Souls'' (2005) - *''Black Bodies and the Black Church: A Blues Slant'' (2012) - *''Stand Your Ground: Black Bodies and the Justice of God'' (2015) *''Black Christ, 25th Anniversary Edition'' (2019) -

References

External links

Rev. Canon Kelly Brown Douglas on C-Span
{{DEFAULTSORT:Douglas, Kelly Brown 20th-century African-American writers 20th-century African-American women 20th-century American Episcopalians 20th-century American theologians 20th-century American women writers 20th-century Anglican theologians 21st-century African-American writers 21st-century African-American women 21st-century American Episcopalians 21st-century American theologians 21st-century American women writers 21st-century Anglican theologians Academics from Ohio African-American Episcopalians African-American theologians African-American women academics African-American academics American Episcopal theologians American women academics Christians from Ohio Denison University alumni Edward Waters College faculty Episcopal Divinity School faculty Women Anglican clergy Goucher College faculty and staff Howard University faculty Living people Place of birth missing (living people) Union Theological Seminary (New York City) alumni Union Theological Seminary (New York City) faculty Washington National Cathedral Womanist theologians Women Christian theologians Women Protestant religious leaders Writers from Dayton, Ohio Year of birth missing (living people) African-American women writers