‘A Holy Joy of a Peculiar Kind’: Jarena Lee, Black Contemplative Preaching, and Bridging Racial Divides

Jarena Lee (1783-185?), the first woman licensed to preach in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, is a well-established homiletical role model for women and persons of faith in multiple traditions. Her life and witness continue to be the subjects of study in many research venues through a variety of lenses, although less frequently through the lens of Black contemplative preaching. This paper offers a reappraisal of Jarena Lee as a Black contemplative preacher, with particular attention to what Professor Edgar “Trey” Clark III has called the “mystical hermeneutic” characteristic of Black contemplative preaching.[1] Such a reappraisal invites us to consider anew how Jarena Lee’s life and example may offer invitational models for bridging racial divides. [1] Edgar “Trey” Clark III, “Hidden in Plain Sight: Reclaiming the Witness and Wisdom of Black Contemplative Preachers,” Homiletic Vol 47, no. 2 (2022): 6-8.