Chaplin

The Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, Ph.D.

Gayle Fisher-Stewart is a priest in the Diocese of Washington.  A native Washingtonian, prior to accepting the call to ordained ministry, she retired from the Metropolitan Police Department as a captain and then taught at the university level.  She also consulted for the International City/County Management Association, the U.S. Department of Justice and local government organizations. Throughout her career, she has been ever mindful of the effects of racism in the criminal justice system, the educational system, and various communities in which she has served. She has been an outspoken advocate for making the reign of God a reality for everyone based on her belief that “we don’t have to live this way.” The violence, economic inequities, racism and all the other -isms and phobias are choices we make in violation of the love God showed at creation and continues to show in spite of human beings “missing the mark.” After nine years as president of the Crummell-Cooper Chapter, Union of Black Episcopalians, she has turned over the gavel to a new president and continues to serve on the diocesan reparations committee and as the chaplain for the Takoma Park Police Department (MD). She served on the diocesan finance committee and the Washington National Cathedral’s racial justice committee and was part of the committee that pushed for the removal of the Robert E. Lee-Stonewall Jackson windows at the Cathedral. She was the recipient of the 2024 Bishop Quintin Ebenezer Primo, Jr. Honors Award from the Union of Black Episcopalians for “extraordinary leadership as a pastor and advocate for justice and the community.” She also served as the 2024 Triennial Chaplain for the Episcopal Church Women and has an honorary doctor of divinity from Colgate University.

Committed to making the reign of God real for everyone at the grass-roots level, she has written on race, policing and the Episcopal Church.  “To Serve and Protect:  Race, the Police and the Episcopal Church in the Black Lives Matter Era” was published in the Summer (2017) edition of the “Anglican Theological Review.” Her book, Preaching Black Lives (Matter) (2020) asks and answers the question, what would the church look like if black lives mattered? In Black and Episcopalian: The Struggle for Inclusion (2021), she makes the case that African Americans should be able to bring their authentic selves to the church and not be forced to fit into a mold determined by the dominant culture. In response to the uprisings over the police murder of Mr. George Floyd, she developed and presented the curriculum: “To Serve and Protect: Bridging the Gap Between the Police and the Black Community.” She recently published her third book, Church Hurt: Reparations for My Soul – Healing Racialized Trauma, which makes the case that the trauma of racism and white supremacy must be fully acknowledged before the church can begin the process of reparations/repair.

She lives in Takoma Park, MD, and the love of her life is her son, David.