Teresa (Terri) Hord Owens is an American Christian minister who currently serves as the General Minister and President of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada. She was elected to that role in 2017.

Early career

Owens graduated from

Harvard University Harvard University is a private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Founded in 1636 as Harvard College and named for its first benefactor, the Puritan clergyman John Harvard, it is the oldest institution of higher le ...

in 1982 and subsequently worked in data management at large corporations. After 23 years, she recognized a call to ministry, and went to the

University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a private graduate institution at the University of Chicago dedicated to the training of academics and clergy across religious boundaries. Formed under Baptist auspices, the school today lacks any s ...

and

Disciples Divinity House Disciples Divinity House of the University of Chicago is a Christian seminary associated with the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) and the University of Chicago Divinity School The University of Chicago Divinity School is a private gr ...

, from which she graduated in 2003 with a Master of Divinity. In 2005, she was appointed dean of students of the University of Chicago Divinity School. She served in that position for 15 years.

General Minister and President

In 2017, she was nominated and elected General Minister and President of the

Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) is a mainline Protestant Christian denomination in the United States and Canada. The denomination started with the Restoration Movement during the Second Great Awakening, first existing during the 19th ...

in the United States and Canada. She is the first woman of color to lead a mainline Christian denomination in North America, and the second woman to lead the Disciples of Christ. As GMP, she serves as head of communion, pastor to the denomination, and chief executive of the denomination. Since her election, she has appeared at rallies and events of the

Poor People's Campaign The Poor People's Campaign, or Poor People's March on Washington, was a 1968 effort to gain economic justice for poor people in the United States. It was organized by Martin Luther King Jr. and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCL ...

, guided the Disciples through the

COVID-19 Pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic, also known as the coronavirus pandemic, is an ongoing global pandemic of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19) caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2). The novel virus was first identif ...

, and facilitated a full communion agreement between the Disciples and the

United Church of Canada The United Church of Canada (french: link=no, Église unie du Canada) is a mainline Protestant denomination that is the largest Protestant Christian denomination in Canada and the second largest Canadian Christian denomination after the Catholi ...

. In 2021, she was elected Treasurer of the

National Council of Churches The National Council of the Churches of Christ in the USA, usually identified as the National Council of Churches (NCC), is the largest ecumenical body in the United States. NCC is an ecumenical partnership of 38 Christian faith groups in the Uni ...

, becoming part of the first slate of all-female leadership for the ecumenical organization.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Owens, Teresa Hord Year of birth missing (living people) Living people Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) clergy University of Chicago Divinity School alumni Harvard University alumni