December 14, 2020
Cheryl Stewart Pero, one of the first Black Lutheran women to be ordained in the United States, died on October 28 after a short illness and hospitalization. She was 69.
In 1980, Pero became the second Black woman ordained in the Lutheran Church in America, a predecessor body of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America. She was also the first Black woman to receive a PhD in biblical studies, which she earned at the Lutheran School of Theology at Chicago.
She later went on to teach a popular course in multicultural biblical interpretation at the seminary, earning a reputation for hospitality and deep care for her students.