Carter Heyward

Rev. Carter Heyward speaks with students in Dayton, Ohio, 1974.

Carter Heyward was born on August 22, 1945 in Charlotte, North Carolina. After earning an undergraduate degree from Randolph-Macon Women’s College in 1967, Heyward went on to earn a Master’s degree in Comparative Study of Religion from Columbia University in 1971, a Master of Divinity degree from Union Theological Seminary in 1973, and a Ph.D. in Systematic Theology from Union Theological Seminary in 1980.

As a child, Heyward dreamed of being a priest. Although her dream faded in adolescence, she rediscovered it over her years at Union. In the spring of 1971, she applied for ordination in the Diocese of North Carolina. She was refused. It was not until two years later that she was ordained a deacon in the Diocese of New York. The next year, on July 29, 1974, she was one of the first women to be ordained priest in The Episcopal Church alongside the other ten women of the “Philadelphia Eleven.”

After her ordination, Heyward was hired as a professor of theology at Episcopal Divinity School. She remained there until her retirement from academia in 2005. Around this time, she founded a therapy riding center in Brevard, North Carolina, where she taught as a Professional Association for Therapeutic Horsemanship (PATH) certified instructor.

Heyward has had a lifelong interest in matters of social justice. At age sixteen, she led a group of her peers in a diocesan youth program to encourage the Diocese of North Carolina in racially integrating its summer camp. She is a member of multiple social justice and environmental protection non-profit organizations and currently serves with her local NAACP chapter as a vice-president and the chair of the Religious Affairs Committee. Her most recent book, a work examining white supremacy in Christianity entitled The Seven Deadly Sins of White Christian Nationalism: A Call to Action, was published in 2022.