Cape pastor takes diversity role at Ohio university

The Rev. Renita Green of historic St. James African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, 516 North St. in Cape Girardeau, whose six-year ministry brought -- among other things -- a warming center to citizens in the bitter cold of winter, is moving to the Buckeye State.

Green, 50, will become associate director of religious diversity and ecumenical ministry at the University of Dayton in Ohio next month.

"It's a new position, part of the Catholic university's strategic plan for both religious and ethnic diversity," said Green, who ran unsuccessfully for Missouri state representative in District 147 in 2018 and for Cape Girardeau City Council in 2020.

Green is used to being a trailblazer.

She was appointed in 2015 as the first non-African American senior pastor in the history of St. James AME, which was founded at the close of the Civil War in 1865.

"The university comes out of the Marianist tradition, which has social justice as part of its core values," Green explained.

Green, who is pursuing a doctor of ministry degree at Payne Theological Seminary in Wilberforce, Ohio, said she will continue to serve St. James Church until October by returning for in-person worship or virtually until a new pastor is appointed to the congregation.

St. James' warming center has been used as a model, Green said, for churches in Sikeston and Malden, Missouri.

"I've tried to be a people's pastor, not simply the leader of a specific congregation," said Green, a native of Kansas City, Kansas. "Not everyone is a Christian or grew up in the church but still need a pastor."

During Green's tenure, improvements and renovations to St. James' church building valued at an estimated $100,000 were made, she said.

Green begins her new duties July 16.