As the first female pastor in the 120-year history of the Wallace Temple A.M.E. Zion Church, Reverend Dorothy A. Patterson continues to pursue her dreams of improving herself and her community with the same fervor she showed as a schoolgirl playing basketball in Lamar, S.C.
Born in Paterson, N.J., Patterson was raised in the small town of Lamar (population: 1,015) with her grandparents, who instilled a strong faith in her at an early age. Patterson spent most of those days going to school, helping her grandmother at church, and playing basketball with other girls in town. Although she played for fun, Patterson admits that she was a fierce competitor. It’s this same unrelenting drive that has led her on a journey back to New Jersey to find success and happiness.
“I think I’m just blessed in my case,” says Patterson. “I pastor a congregation about which I’m passionate. I’m in education, which I’m passionate about; and whenever I get on the court, I’m passionate about that too. So I think I’m blessed to be doing things I really love, and the things I used to do I still love doing.”
After earning a bachelor’s degree in child development and early childhood education from South Carolina State University, Patterson moved back to Paterson with her grandparents, and began teaching pre-K and kindergarten in 1989, while her grandmother preached at church. Currently Patterson works with the Head Start program and also with a teen parenting program in Paterson. Following in the inspiring footsteps of her grandmother, she began preaching as well. After becoming the first female pastor in her parish in Bergen County, her journey led her to Bayonne, where she plans to spread her neighborliness to the community as she once did in Lamar.
Patterson believes that you don’t have to be visible in order to be valuable. She has dedicated countless hours to volunteer work, but if you ask her, she is just completing the missions she was born to do.
“I’m living out my God-given purpose to be able to help mankind the best I can,” she says. “The more I understand that that’s what I’ve been created to do, the more I am moving into the place of understanding who I am.”
Though the church itself was built 120 years ago, its pastoral origins date back to the 1880s in New York City, where it played an active part in the civil rights movement in the United States with members like Harriet Tubman and Fredrick Douglass. Since its inception, it has functioned with the sole purpose of meeting the needs of its congregation and those facing discrimination.
Patterson prays that the church will do its best on the corner of Avenue C and West 17th Street to serve the community around it. The Wallace Temple A.M.E. Zion Church runs food pantries and clothing drives, and provides services for the elderly and sick, free blood pressure screenings, and outreach programs for those in need. Its doors are open for anyone and everyone.
“Wallace Temple is always bigger than this particular corner,” Patterson says. “The building is here, but when you’re doing ministry the right way, there are no walls.”
Patterson aspires to one day establish a homeless shelter for women in Bayonne that will also act as a transitional center for women looking for work, education, and parenting help.
As passionate as Patterson is about her ministry, she is also passionate about her sport, taking on anyone brave enough to go one-on-one with her on the basketball court.
Trust me.—BLP
Images by Tbishphoto