On February 11, 1783 The Reverend Jarena Lee was born to free parents in Cape May, NJ. She was the widow of The Reverend Joseph Lee, former Pastor of Snow Hill (now Mt. Pisgah) AME Church, Lawnside, NJ. Under the anointing, she heard the call to preach in 1818 and went on to become the first woman licensed to preach in the AME Church, being granted a license by Bishop Richard Allen in 1819.

Reverend Lee was a true itinerant evangelist. She proclaimed the gospel extensively throughout the Northeastern United States and Canada, traveling more than 2,800 by foot preaching more than 692 sermons. In 1849 her autobiography, The Life and Religious Experience of Jarena Lee, was published. Buried at Mt. Pisgah AME Church, Lawnside, NJ, her date of death is believed to be between 1855 and 1857.

At the 2016 Bicentennial General Conference, the AME Church posthumously recognized her calling and elevated her by the Conferral of Honoris Causa Ministerial Title declaring her an Itinerant Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

We give thanks for her life and witness and invite you to learn more about this great woman of God.