St. Paul Deacon Robin Woodberry to be ordained June 3

The Repository
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Rev. Dr. Robin Woodberry, Deacon-in-Charge at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Canton, will be formally ordained as an Episcopal priest on June 3.
Rev. Dr. Robin Woodberry, Deacon-in-Charge at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church in downtown Canton, will be formally ordained as an Episcopal priest on June 3.

CANTON − The Rev. Robin Woodberry, deacon-in-charge at St. Paul’s Episcopal Church at 425 Cleveland Ave. SW, will be formally ordained as a priest at 10 a.m. June 3.

Bishop Mark Hollingsworth Jr., head of the Diocese of Ohio, will officiate.

Upon ordination, Woodberry will become priest-in-charge of the historic downtown Canton church she has been serving for the past year.

Deacon makes history at St. Paul Meet Robin Woodberry, deacon-in-charge at St. Paul's Episcopal Church

A native of Youngstown and a second-generation pastor, Woodberry was licensed in the Baptist tradition in 1995 and ordained 10 years later at New Bethel Baptist Church.

She holds a doctorate in ministry from the Southern Bible Institute and Seminary in Augusta, Georgia.

Woodberry is the former nominating chairperson for the National Board of Church Women United, and executive director of the Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.

She joined the Episcopal Church in 2017, and began her seminary studies at the Church Divinity School of the Pacific in Berkeley, California.

She completed her field studies at Christ Church in Hudson before being ordained last May as a transitional deacon (a step toward the priesthood) and coming to St. Paul’s.

She completed her studies at Bexley Seabury Seminary in Chicago. She has been elected to the Episcopal Community Services Committee and serves on the church’s Commission for Racial Understanding.

In Stark County, she is involved with the Interfaith Violence Prevention Coalition and the Interfaith Clergy Study Group.

Woodberry and her husband, Anthony, have five children and are grandparents to six. Her mother, the Rev. Gena Thornton, is a retired pastor in the African Methodist Episcopal Church.

St. Paul’s is one of the oldest churches in Canton, celebrating 154 years at the same location, and the 100th year of its current sanctuary. It has been a key partner in efforts ranging from Courageous Conversations on Race Relations to Thanksgiving Baskets Downtown.

St. Paul's is one of 79 Northeast Ohio parishes in the Episcopal Diocese of Ohio, and is part of the worldwide Anglican Communion.

Clergy of all denominations are invited to process and wear white robes and red stoles for the ordination, which will be followed by a reception in the St. Paul’s Guild Hall.

This article originally appeared on The Repository: St. Paul Episcopal's Robin Woodberry to be formally ordained June 3