Date: September 22, 2026
Verna Dozier (1917–2006) was one of the Episcopal Church’s leading African American lay theologians. A Washingtonian educated at Howard University, she taught in the District’s public schools for decades, then, after retiring early in 1975, gave herself full time to religious education and to the ministry of God’s people in the world. Her ties to this Seminary run deep: VTS invited her to help build the theological foundation of the Episcopal Children’s Curriculum, and she co-taught Scripture here in the late 1980s. VTS awarded her an honorary doctorate in 1993.
For Verna, ministry began at baptism, not ordination. When told retirement would finally free her to take up a ministry, she answered that she would be continuing one. Having grown up under Jim Crow, she championed the oppressed, supported women’s ordination, and advocated for gay and lesbian Christians in the church. She wrote that there are “no second-class citizens in the household of God,” a conviction that still challenges us.
On Thursday, September 24, the African American Episcopal Historical Collection will honor her life and legacy. Bishop Michael Curry will deliver the keynote address at 3:00 pm, followed by a Eucharist at 5:15 pm. Please come and celebrate a teacher whose questions still shape how we read Scripture and understand our calling.
The Very Rev. Ian S. Markham, Ph.D.
Dean and President of Virginia Theological Seminary and the President of The General Theological Seminary