It is with a heavy heart that I report that today another great Elder has made the transition and become an Ancestor. Dr. Ella Pearson Mitchell, a pioneer in the field of Black Preaching and someone who many called the “Dean of Black Women Preaching” died on the morning of Thursday, November 20, 2008.
While never having the opportunity to meet her personally, I have been blessed by her many writings on a variety of subject matter. Her work, in partnership with her husband, Henry Mitchell, on Black Preaching was classic and definitive – becoming in many respects the dominant characteristic of my homiletical studies while in seminary.
One of her most recent works, Those Preaching Women: A Multi-Cultural Collection, features one of the most dynamic preachers that I was blessed to go to seminary with, Rev. Carla Jackson out of Virginia.
My prayers go out to the Mitchell family and the entire agregation of people who study, cherish, and devote themselves to sound preaching. Today, one of God’s most powerful pulpiteers and scholars went Home to receive her reward.
There are many websites that speak to the importance and significant contribution of Ella Pearson Mitchell. This is just one site of many that sheds light on this giant of a woman.
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Dr. Ella Mitchell will indeed be missed by all those who have had the pleasure of sitting at her feet. She has certianly been an inspiration for me. When The Mitchells arrived at the School of Theology at Virginia Union University I was in my first year of studies. Ella had a way of making the scriptures come alive as she read from the Word of God.
The halls of academic have been made hollowed by her steps and await God’s filling of the void that has been made. I thank God for her and pray for Henry, as he prepares to depart from this journey, which began so long ago with Ella at his side.
Danny Conyers STVU 84
I count it a blessing to have had the wisdom of "Grandma" Ella Pearson Mitchell in my life at the start of my ministry. Her transition leaves a huge hole in the Council of Elders among Black Preaching Women.
Plans for her Homegoing Celebration are as follows:
The Wake will be on Monday, December 1 at 6:00pm beginning with the Delta Sigma Theta Omega Omega ceremony. And the funeral will be on Tuesday, December 2nd at 11:00 a.m. Both services will be held in the Horizon Sanctuary of the Ebenezer Baptist Church in Atlanta. GA.