The Theology Program is proud to support Union Presbyterian Seminary’s Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership and its on-going work to cultivate and inspire black women seminarians, clergy, and scholars of religion.


Union Presbyterian Seminary will use a $400,000 grant to lift the voices and perspectives of Black women in the church, academy, and the world.

The three-year grant was awarded by the Henry Luce Foundation to the Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership, which was established at the seminary in April 2018 to inspire, equip, connect, and support Black women divinely motivated to serve as change-makers in their community.

“The Katie Geneva Cannon Center for Womanist Leadership is the first and only effort of its kind in the country,” said director Rev. Melanie C. Jones. “This grant will support our programmatic agenda to shape the next generation of Black women seminarians, graduate students of religion, clergy, and theological faculty who seek to demystify hidden manifestations of systemic oppression and address persistent and effective strategies of justice-making. Through six womanist initiatives (wellness, wisdom, witness, worship, wares, and works), the Center nurtures the soul of Black women as they cultivate pathways to whole communities.”

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