General Convention has added Deaconess Anna Alexander, who began her ministry at Good Shepherd in Pennick, Georgia, to the Episcopal Church’s calendar of saints.
“And in a time when women were not able to live completely into God’s call for them, she lived the fullness of God calling in her life anyway, starting schools starting churches, spreading the good news to any and all regardless of race, class or kind. All this she did because she really followed Jesus and his way of love. She was in her time a living model of a follower of Jesus Christ. And she is that for us in our time. For that reason, the Episcopal Church honors and gives thanks for Deaconess Anna Alexander.”
Born the youngest of 11 children to recently emancipated slaves on St. Simons Island, Alexander (1865-1947) started a church and school in the Pennick Community west of Brunswick.
Her feast day is Sept. 24.
Adapted from the Diocese of Georgia
Matthew Townsend is a Halifax-based freelance journalist and volunteer advocate for survivors of sexual misconduct in Anglican settings. He served as editor of the Anglican Journal from 2019 to 2021 and communications missioner for the Anglican Diocese of Quebec from 2019 to 2022. He and his wife recently entered catechism class in the Orthodox Church in America.
