Rena Karefa-Smart
A smiling young Black woman, from a 1940 newspaper
Rena Joyce Weller (later Karefa-Smart), from a 1940 newspaper
Born
Rena Joyce Weller

March 2, 1921
Bridgeport, Connecticut, United States
DiedJanuary 9, 2019(2019-01-09) (aged 97)
Rancho Mirage, California, United States
Occupation(s)Religious leader, theologian
SpouseJohn Karefa-Smart

Rena Joyce Weller Karefa-Smart (March 2, 1921 – January 9, 2019) was an American religious leader and theologian. In 1945, she was the first Black woman graduate of Yale Divinity School in 1945, the first Black woman to earn a Doctor of Theology degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1976, and active in world ecumenical organizations.

Early life and education

Rena Joyce Weller was born in Bridgeport, Connecticut, the daughter of Sailsman William Weller and Rosa Lee Lowery Weller. Her Jamaican-born father was an ordained clergyman in the AME Zion denomination; her mother was a leader in churchwork as well, as national president of the AMEZ denomination's Woman's Home and Foreign Missionary Society, and as president of the Connecticut State Union of Women.[1][2][3]

She trained as a teacher at the Teachers College of Connecticut, where she was the youngest member of the graduating class of 1940, and played softball and volleyball.[4] She earned a master's degree in religious education from Drew Theological Seminary in 1942. She completed a bachelor of divinity degree from Yale Divinity School in 1945,[5] studying with H. Richard Niebuhr and Liston Pope. She earned a Doctor of Theology degree from Harvard Divinity School in 1976, the first Black woman to do so.[6] Her Harvard thesis was titled "An analysis of representative official statements by the World Council of Churches on the problem of race" (1976).[7]

Career

Weller was president of the National Council of AME Zion Young People, and secretary of the United Christian Youth Movement.[8] She was a leader of the World Student Christian Federation.[9] She was an ordained Episcopal priest and a minister in the AME Zion denomination. She taught at Hood Theological Seminary for two years as a young woman.[1]

Karefa-Smart served the Episcopal Diocese of Washington as an ecumenical officer, and associate in the Center for Theology and Public Policy. She attended the first and second assemblies of the World Council of Churches (WCC) in 1948 and 1954,[9] and worked to create the WCC's Program to Combat Racism. She taught Christian ethics at Howard University School of Divinity,[10] and was the first female professor to gain tenure there, in 1979.[1] She received the Yale Divinity School's Lux et Veritas alumni award in 2017.[1]

Publications

  • "Africa asks questions of the West" (1957)[11]
  • The Halting Kingdom: Christianity and the African Revolution (1959, with John Karefa-Smart)
  • "The ecumenical challenge of united and uniting churches" (1995)[12]

Personal life

Rena Weller married Sierra Leonean physician and diplomat John Karefa-Smart in 1948.[13][14] They lived in Africa, Europe, the Caribbean, and North America as his work required. They had three children. Her son died in 1988, her husband died in 2010, and she died in 2019, at the age of 97, in Rancho Mirage, California.[1][5] The World Council of Churches stated, in tribute, that Karefa-Smart was "a champion for global ecumenism over the course of a long and distinguished career."[15]

References

  1. 1 2 3 4 5 Seelye, Katharine Q. (February 1, 2019). "Rena Karefa-Smart, 97, Leader in Ecumenical Movement, Is Dead". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  2. ↑ "Noted AMEZ Worker Dies". The Pittsburgh Courier. September 5, 1953. p. 12. Retrieved March 10, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  3. ↑ "AME Zion Church Leader Passes" (PDF). The Carolina Times. p. 6. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via DigitalNC.
  4. ↑ "Youngest Graduate". The Waterbury Democrat. June 10, 1940. p. 5. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  5. 1 2 "Rena Weller Karefa-Smart, '45 B.D." Yale Divinity School. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  6. ↑ Braude, Ann (October 2006). "A Short Half-Century: Fifty Years of Women at Harvard Divinity School". Harvard Theological Review. 99 (4): 369–380. doi:10.1017/S0017816006001313. ISSN 1475-4517. S2CID 162413506.
  7. ↑ Karefa-Smart, Rena Joyce. "An analysis of representative official statements by the World Council of Churches on the problem of race: a thesis." PhD diss., Harvard University, 1976.
  8. ↑ "Aid for Veterans to be Topic at Church Sessions". The Tribune. October 26, 1945. p. 18. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  9. 1 2 "A tribute to Rev. Dr Rena Joyce Weller Karefa-Smart". World Council of Churches. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
  10. ↑ Scarupa, Harriet Jackson. "Divinity School: Continuing Historic Role Under New Name" New Directions 8, no. 1 (1980): 13.
  11. ↑ Karefa-Smart, Rena (October 1957). "Africa asks questions of the West". The Ecumenical Review. 10 (1): 43–55. doi:10.1111/j.1758-6623.1957.tb01841.x. ISSN 0013-0796.
  12. ↑ Karefa-Smart, Rena. "The ecumenical challenge of united and uniting churches." The Ecumenical Review 47, no. 4 (1995): 464-472.
  13. ↑ "What Kind of Spouses Do Africans Make?". Ebony: 100, 104–105. February 1982.
  14. ↑ "American Girl Enrolls in Freetown University College". The Voice. November 25, 1948. p. 1. Retrieved March 9, 2023 – via Newspapers.com.
  15. ↑ "Rena Weller Karefa-Smart, international ecumenical leader, dies at age 97". The Christian Century. February 12, 2019. Retrieved March 9, 2023.
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