The old adage that “God works in mysterious ways” certainly applies to Rev. Dorothy A. Patterson, who took over as pastor of the Wallace Temple A.M.E. Zion Church in May.
This isn’t only because she is the first female minister in the congregation’s 117-year-history. It’s also how she made her way to the ministry after previously believing she would pursue a career as an educator.
Patterson holds a bachelor’s degree in child development and early childhood education from S.C. State University in Orangeburg, S.C. She has taught in Paterson public schools, directed two Abbott preschool programs, and is currently employed as a parent educator working with pregnant women and teens in Paterson.
In college, Patterson thought she would pursue a career in education. But looking back at her early childhood, she can see the foundation of her ministry work in how she was brought up.
Born in Paterson, N.J., Patterson was raised in South Carolina, where her grandmother preached, and where Patterson learned about the community and the role those like her grandmother played in the lives of ordinary people. She was often asked to help bring food to needy families, and often helped out in the local church.
“I was always in church even when nobody else was there,” she said.
“I want us to be good neighbors and I want to build on Wallace’s successes.” — Rev. Dorothy A. Patterson
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“I was being shaped all along,” she said.
This seed lingered inside of her, waiting for a moment to blossom as she went on to get her degree in education.
Fate or perhaps divine providence brought her back to New Jersey for high school. Patterson attended Eastside High School, one of the toughest urban schools in the nation, made famous by Principal Joe Clark in the film “Lean on Me.”
Even she admitted it was something of a clash of cultures when she brought her southern customs into the halls of the tough urban school. She returned south for college, only to return to Paterson again after graduation, hired not to teach, but as the assistant director at a Paterson pre-school. Later she got her share of classroom work in other Paterson schools.
Her calling
Patterson, 46, was ordained an elder in the American Methodist Episcopal denomination in 2008, but can recall the exact date when she got called to do God’s work: Nov. 12, 1999, after she had attended a summer course at a Drew University seminary and received a letter later saying she had been accepted into the university’s ministry program.
“I tore it up,” she said.
She was attending Montclair University at the time, and saw no reason to change. She had a good financial package that paid for her classes and her books, and Drew, she expected, would require a significant outlay she didn’t have. She also didn’t have to travel all the way to Madison from her home.
Two months later, the second acceptance letter came, and she was about to tear that one up, too, and then pondered it.
“The lord said for me not to tear it up,” she said. “But I didn’t know where the money would come from. My head wasn’t in the clouds. I knew this was a pretty good thing to worry about.”
‘God made a way’
She went ahead and enrolled, and started school in January 2001, working full-time while attending part time, and somehow she managed it.
“I can’t tell you how it happened, but somehow I managed,” she said. “I didn’t get an increase of money.”
She did, however, have to care for two nieces after her sister’s untimely death.
“God made a way,” she said. “We had food and shelter and all we needed.”
While at school, she worked with a women’s ministry and other groups. She also attended conferences and events that allowed her to network outside her own local church and meet people on a different level.
While at Drew, Patterson needed to perform what is called “supervised ministry.” She had to work in a church other than her own, so she wound up in suburban Ridgewood, and later served as pastor at a church in Cloister.
Went to Ghana
One of the requirements at Drew was that she perform some cross cultural missionary work. She had planned to visit the Appalachian population in Tennessee as part of her studies to examine other cultures. A friend convinced her to go Ghana in West Africa in early 2004 instead.
“It was a life-changing experience,” she said.
She found joy there and sorrow, but she seemed most impressed by the willingness of the people there to allow her into their homes and their lives.
“They didn’t have a lot, but what they had they were willing to give,” she said.
From this, she glimpsed another approach to faith, and saw an overwhelming response to God, and how much more central to their community prayer and belief was.
But it is the diversity of her experiences that she is bringing to Wallace, expressing gratitude to Bishop Louis Hunter Sr. of the Mid-Atlantic region who assigned her there.
She said her primary responsibilities at Wallace will be dealing with people inside and outside of the church. She said she wants this church to have an impact on the community.
Policies and procedures, she noted, are largely set, but there are challenges she said she will be embracing, and people she can get to know and help.
“I want us to be good neighbors, and I want to build on Wallace’s successes,” she said.
Al Sullivan may be reached at asullivan@hudsonreporter.com.