WORD IN BLACK | REV. VIVIAN BAKER CASTAIN
At 94, AME Trailblazer Rev. Vivian Baker Castain Is Still Going Strong
The first woman to serve as a pastor in the Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church keeps living her faith.
by Rev. Dorothy S. Boulware
July 10, 2025
Rev. Vivian Baker Castain didn’t set out to make history. But when she became the first woman to serve as pastor in the Second Episcopal District of the African Methodist Episcopal Church — spanning the District of Columbia, Maryland, North Carolina, and Virginia — she stepped into a role few women before her had been allowed to imagine. The “call” to ministry came later in life, but once it did, she didn’t hesitate. It wasn’t about courage, she says. It was just something I knew.
She grew up in Columbia, South Carolina, where then-Charity Edna Adams, now known as the first Black woman officer and leader of the 6888 Battalion in World War II, was one of her junior high school teachers.
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