Rev. Shonda Nicole Gladden

The Reverend Shonda Nicole Gladden is a native Washingtonian. She was nurtured not only by a loving family, but also by a plethora of "village" hands throughout the Washington Metropolitan, Baltimore and New York City areas. She is a creative, spirit-filled, and vibrant scholar, speaker, singer and social entrepreneur.

In November 2012, Rev. Gladden was assigned to pastor Bethel AME Church in Lafayette, IN. As a proud Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church, she hails from the Washington Annual Conference of the Second Episcopal District where she was ordained by Bishop Adam Jefferson Richardson, assisted by both Bishop Vashti Murphy McKenzie and Bishop McKinley Young. She excitedly joins a team of lay, civic, and government leaders to actively work to discern and realize God's plan for the Greater Lafayette community.

Long before being ordained, Rev. Gladden has preached, presented workshops and facilitated panel discussions throughout the connection as a servant of God. Her ministry witness has been characterized by passionate service with youth, young adults and the young at heart. As a teenager, she joined Reid Temple A.M.E., now one church in two locations in both Glenn Dale and Silver Spring, Maryland where she served God faithfully as a youth worker, choir member and director, kitchen worker, camp counselor, teacher, steward, administrative aide, commissioner and minister. Her most notable ministry assignments at Reid Temple include Commissioner of Youth and Young Adults at the Glenn Dale campus and the founding director of the Reid North Children's Choir. Additionally, Reverend Gladden fulfilled her Washington Annual Conference Board of Examiner's Internship requirement as the Senior Minister to Youth & Young Adults at Brown Memorial AME Church on Capitol Hill under the pastoral leadership of the Rev. Dr. Henry Y. White. Prior to accepting the pastoral appointment to Bethel, Rev. Gladden faithfully served in the Chicago Annual Conference of the Fourth Episcopal District under the pastoral leadership of the Rev. Jesse Hawkins as the Associate Minister to Young Adults at St. John AME Church in Aurora, IL and alongside the Rev. Dr. Norris E. Jackson, Jr. at St. Paul AME Church in Glencoe, IL as the Assistant to the Pastor. With twenty years of combined lay and clergy experience, Rev. Gladden is still young enough to be relevant, but seasoned enough to appreciate the wisdom, history and legacy of the shoulders upon which she now stands.

Anointed and called both for the academy and the church, education is of prime importance to Pastor Gladden. Presently, she is a doctoral student engaged in researching phenomenological and pneumatological nuances of identity and faith formation among Diasporic people through the idioms of popular culture and art. She has earned four degrees: a B.A. in Philosophy from Morgan State University, both an M.Div. and an M.T.S. from Wesley Theological Seminary in Washington, DC, and an M.T.S. from Garrett-Evangelical Theological Seminary on the campus of Northwestern University. In addition to completing her coursework, she is an active member of the American Academy of Religion, where she has presented papers and led roundtable sessions; she is completing her third and final year as co-convener of the Women's Caucus.

With a heart for effecting and empowering community change, Pastor Gladden is a dedicated activist, social entrepreneur, and community organizer. She and has served as a community advocate, state ambassador, clinician and speaker throughout the world. She has represented the State of Maryland twice on international platforms, first as an EF Educational Ambassador to Europe and again as Miss Black Maryland USA. She has lead and participated in short term humanitarian projects throughout the continental United States, Canada, England, France, Germany, Switzerland, Czech Republic, South Africa, Kenya and South Korea.

Pastor Gladden is the proud single mother of one daughter, Zuri Abigail, who is her mother’s most precious gift and responsibility. Her favorite hymn is “Oh For a Faith” and the scripture she lives by is Philippians 3:12-14: “Not that I have already attained, or am already perfected; but I press on, that I may lay hold of that for which Christ Jesus has also laid hold of me. Brothers and Sisters, I do not count myself to have apprehended; but one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind and reaching forward to those things which are ahead, I press toward the goal for the prize of the upward call of God in Christ Jesus.”