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Jarena Lee (February 11, 1783 – February 3, 1864) was the first woman preacher in the African Methodist Episcopal Church (AME). Born into a Free Negro family in New Jersey, Lee asked the founder of the AME church, Richard Allen, to be a preacher. Although Allen initially refused, after hearing her preach in 1819, Allen approved her preaching ministry. Religious Experience and Journal of Mrs. Jarena Lee. pbs.org A leader in the Wesleyan-Holiness movement, Lee preached the doctrine of entire sanctification as an itinerant pastor throughout the pulpits of the African Methodist Episcopal denomination. In 1836, Lee became the first African American woman to publish an autobiography.
In 1804, Lee was first introduced to Christianity by a Presbyterianism missionary.Giver-Johnston, Donna, 'Jarena Lee', Claiming the Call to Preach: Four Female Pioneers of Preaching in Nineteenth-Century America (New York, 2021; online edn, Oxford Academic, 22 July 2021), , accessed 12 June 2023. In 1804, she moved from New Jersey to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, where she continued in domestic service. While there, she was introduced to Christian teachings during religious revivals at Allen's church, and felt herself to be a "wretched sinner." Bishop Richard Allen's teachings inspired her to convert, but she continued to struggle in the male dominated church. She recounted that she struggled with suicidal thoughts and fantasized about drowning herself on at least several occasions. Through prayer, she finally felt justified and was Baptism. After three months of constant prayer, she felt that she had been fully Sanctification by the Holy Spirit."American Religious History", ed. Amanda Porterfield, 2002, Blackwell Publishers, Malden, Massachusetts .
In 1807, Lee began hearing voices telling her to "Go preach the Gospel! Preach the Gospel; I will put words in your mouth." Lee then told Richard Allen that God had spoken to her and commanded her to preach, but Allen said that there was no provision for women preachers in the Methodist Church.
Religious belief became a source of self-empowerment for Lee.Peterson, p. 56 In rebuttal to questions on a female ministry, she responded, "Did not Mary first preach the risen Savior?".Harvey, Paul. (2011). Through the storm through the night: a history of African American Christianity. Landham, MD: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers. p. 43. The idea that African Americans and women could preach was an element of the Second Great Awakening, which reached its peak as Lee began her missionary work.[2]. nyhistory.org
Despite Richard Allen's blessing, Lee continued to face hostility to her ministry because she was black and a woman. She became a traveling minister, traveling thousands of miles on foot. In one year alone, she "travelled two thousand three hundred and twenty-five miles, and preached one hundred and seventy-eight sermons."
In 1852, the African Methodist Episcopal Church officially ruled that women were not allowed to preach. Following this decision, Lee disappeared from the historical record. However, Dr. Frederick Knight identified her amongst the speakers at the 1853 American Anti-Slavery Society’s convention, at which she joined the Pennsylvania Female Anti-Slavery Society and supported the anti-colonization resolution.
Lee's date of death is unclear. Archival research by Dr. Knight suggests that Jarena Lee died penniless in Philadelphia and was buried at Olive Cemetery. However, records of Mount Pisgah AME Church Cemetery indicate that she died in 1855 and was buried there. Other sources list her death in 1857.
Jarena Lee was the subject of a research project at Harvard Divinity School entitled "The Resurrection of Jarena Lee." Womanist Biblical scholar Nyasha Junior is involved with this project.
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