Philadelphia-Area Pastor Is Recognized for Her Work in the Community
By Sister Angelena Spears
Philadelphia Conference Reporter
It’s hard to believe that the Rev. Carolyn Cavaness is just 39 years old – considering all that she has accomplished in her ministry.
For the past eight years she has served as the pastor of Bethel AME Church in Ardmore, PA – and her work to push ministry beyond the walls of the church have not gone unnoticed, as she has been spotlighted in multiple publications throughout the region.
Most recently, this summer, First Read (a daily newsletter for PA) named her to its Pennsylvania City and State Forty Under 40 list and profiled her as one of 40 trendsetters who stand out for their leadership and “common drive to improve fellow Pennsylvanians’ lives through their words and deeds.”
Her outreach work has given her the label of “community activist,” and she is often credited with building bridges that connect people across diverse backgrounds.
“People are looking to the faith community to be the moral compass and to stand up,” says Cavaness. “We can’t do our faith for ninety minutes on Sunday morning and leave it there. It has to breathe through.”
One achievement that Cavaness is particularly proud of is the establishment of South Ardmore’s first community garden. The goal was to help alleviate hunger in the community and at the same time promote nutrition access. Today the church manages over 20 gardens and helps tend several dozen more. As the gardens have continued to flourish, over 1,000 pounds of produce have been donated in each of the past two years to the Ardmore Food Pantry and other food pantries and networks in the area.
“This [feeding others] is part of our mission,” says Cavaness. “It is what Jesus calls us to do: feed those who are hungry and give drink to those who are thirsty. People are trying to make it from one day to the next and the church must ask, “how do we show who Jesus is?’”
The Bethel Ardmore Church also offers a free after school program and the past few summers it has worked alongside interfaith colleagues to begin a summer feeding pilot program for neighborhood children.
Furthering the work of community service, the church has offered assistance to over 1,000 persons in accessing the COVID-19 vaccine, and Cavaness says members and partners have put in “numerous hours assisting children with virtual learning and adjusting to this troubling time [during the pandemic].”
Cavaness’ working knowledge of Spanish has been used to reach out to the local Latino community, which has struggled with online learning. “In one of the best school districts in the state, you still have those who are not serviced,” she says.
Her commitment to social justice has also been front and center in her ministry. In the weeks following the shooting death of Michael Brown in Ferguson, MS, in August of 2014, Cavaness dedicated services on a “Save Our Sons” Sunday to call the church to a new commitment to fostering the safety and well-being of young black men.
Months later, when protests flared after the decision not to indict the policemen responsible for the choke hold death of Eric Garner in New York, she invited others in the community to send the message that “Black Lives Matter.”
A fourth-generation AME pastor, Cavaness says the drive to have an impactful ministry is in her DNA. Her pastoral roots trace back to her great-grandfather, the late Rev. Dr. Joseph Slade, who served as the pastor of several Pennsylvania churches and also at the historic St. James AME Church in Newark, NJ.
Growing up the daughter of a pastor, Cavaness says she always knew, even as a child, that she wanted to be a preacher. “I wanted to wait until I was an adult, she says, but the call was strong.” She received her license to preach at age 15, and at age 16, she was the youngest in her native New Jersey to be admitted to the New Jersey Annual Conference of the AME Church.
The number of firsts in her career is constantly growing. She is the first female pastor of the Bethel, Ardmore AME Church. She is the first female to serve as the president of the Main Line Black Interdenominational Ministerial Alliance, which represents 12 churches. And next year, in July, she is slated to become the first African American female president of the Ardmore Rotary Club.
She says her church has been incredibly supportive of her community involvement and have helped to push her motto that “we should use all of our God-given gifts to bring the Kingdom down,” – which is a mandate in our Lords prayer, when we pray God’s kingdom will be manifested on earth as it is in heaven.
