Beverly St. John
Encyclopedia
An elder in the Cumberland Presbyterian Church
, Beverly St. John served as that denomination's first female moderator of the General Assembly in 1988. The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination had been the first Presbyterian body to ordain women as clergy beginning with Louisa Woosley in 1889. St. John also authored a collection of essays for parents of small children, As the Twig is Bent, in the mid-1960s, and co-authored a book of poetry with Rev. James Knight, "The Prophet is a Snow Man" in 1986.
In 1977 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters Degree by Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee. In May 2008 at the age of 89 she was awarded the first Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Memphis Theological Seminary. An endowment fund was established in honor of Beverly and the late Bill St. John by Rev. and Mrs. Alfred Bennett to benefit the seminary.
She is a member and Sunday School teacher of Brenthaven Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Brentwood,Tenn., a member of The Woman's Club of Nashville where has served as program chairman for several of the departments over the past 15 years.
Cumberland Presbyterian Church
The Cumberland Presbyterian Church is a Presbyterian Christian denomination spawned by the Second Great Awakening. In 2007, it had an active membership of less than 50,000 and about 800 congregations, the majority of which are concentrated in the United States...
, Beverly St. John served as that denomination's first female moderator of the General Assembly in 1988. The Cumberland Presbyterian denomination had been the first Presbyterian body to ordain women as clergy beginning with Louisa Woosley in 1889. St. John also authored a collection of essays for parents of small children, As the Twig is Bent, in the mid-1960s, and co-authored a book of poetry with Rev. James Knight, "The Prophet is a Snow Man" in 1986.
In 1977 she was awarded a Doctor of Letters Degree by Bethel University in McKenzie, Tennessee. In May 2008 at the age of 89 she was awarded the first Honorary Doctor of Divinity degree from Memphis Theological Seminary. An endowment fund was established in honor of Beverly and the late Bill St. John by Rev. and Mrs. Alfred Bennett to benefit the seminary.
She is a member and Sunday School teacher of Brenthaven Cumberland Presbyterian Church in Brentwood,Tenn., a member of The Woman's Club of Nashville where has served as program chairman for several of the departments over the past 15 years.
Sources
- 2006 Minutes of the General Assembly of the Cumberland Presbyterian Church (Memphis: Tennessee, 2006).