​
Rev. Dr. Delores Carpenter
Founder, African Heritage Cultural Institute
My Story
Delores Carpenter is the girl preacher from Baltimore. Maryland who has loved the Lord her whole life and ministered in the house of God since she was 13 years old. She preached her first sermon and became a licensed minister at 16. She was fully ordained to Christian ministry at 18.
Reverend Dr. Delores Causion Carpenter is Professor Emeritus at Howard University School of Divinity, where she taught for 35 years as the sole Professor of Religious Education (1982-2017). In this capacity, she taught over 1500 future ministers from various denomination and faiths. She began her role at Howard as Assistant Professor, earned tenure as Associate Professor and was elevated to full Professor in 1999. During a year of reaccreditation, she served as the Academic Dean.
Dr. Carpenter is also Senior Pastor Emerita of Michigan Park Christian Church in Washington, D.C. where she served for 25 years as the first woman and first African American pastor (1985-2009). While there, she facilitated the ordination of dozens of ministers and helped to launch several distinguished church music careers.
​
Dr. Carpenter was the first woman ordained to Christian ministry by the Free Will Baptist Conference of Baltimore, Maryland (1962) and the first woman to earn a Master of Divinity degree from Howard University (1969). She also earned other advanced degrees from Morgan State University, Washington University in St. Louis, and Rutgers University. Dr. Carpenter was the first woman Dean at Essex County College in Newark, New Jersey. Before beginning a career in higher education, she worked for the Young Women’s Christian Association (YWCA) in Washington, DC, and Fellowship Center in St. Louis. For three years, she worked for the Lily Endowment in Indianapolis, Indiana evaluating black religion grant recipients.
​
Dr. Carpenter’s publications number over 50 and include her being the producer and general editor of the African American Heritage Hymnal (2001). This hymnal has sold over 500,000 copies and forms the basis of two other hymnals and is used extensively all over the world. The litanies in the hymnal are consistently used in a wide range of institutional settings. They form the basis for her video series, 52 Heritage Moments, which consist of weekly, faith-based black history. Her book A Time for Honor: A Portrait of Black Female Master of Divinity Graduates, (2001) was the first-ever quantitative study of black clergywomen and is a seminal, baseline reference for researchers.
​
​
She has received over 50 honors and awards primarily in the areas of community development, women in the ministry, Christian education, hymnology, and social justice. She has held 30 national and regional board leadership positions and lectured at 22 different universities. She has ministered in 47 US states and 15 countries. She has served as pastor in seven different congregations. EBONY magazine twice recognized her as one of the greatest black preachers in America.
​
In 1999, Dr. Carpenter founded the African Heritage and Cultural Institute of America. Through AHCI, $200,000 has been given in church music scholarships. Also through AHCI, $300,00 has been given in grants to sustain her vision of a “living bridge to Africa.”
In addition to having served as President of the National Convocation of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), she holds honorary Doctor of Divinity degrees from Lynchburg College and the Southern California School of Ministry.
​
She is the mother of two accomplished daughters, Dr. Jane Carpenter-Rock, Ph.D., and architect, Susan Blomquist. AIA. She is the grandmother of Connor, Caleb & Kai. Divorced in 1999, she was married to Navy Chaplain Captain Anthony Carpenter for 30 years.
​
Most recently, she completed a two-year assignment as Interim Pastor at Bethany Christian Church in Fort Washington, Maryland and is presently serving as Moderator-Elect for the Capital Area. This July 2024 marks her 80th birthday. This is remarkable as she is a 40-year Stage 3 breast cancer survivor and a 17-year thyroid cancer survivor.