Evangelist
After a career of 16 years in education, the Bishop of Jackson, Mississippi, invited Bowman to become a consultant for intercultural awareness for his diocese. She then became more directly involved with ministry to her fellow African-Americans. She began to give inspirational talks to Black congregations and found a tremendous response by the people to whom she spoke. Even after she developed cancer and her health began a steady decline, she continued to speak to religious groups, becoming a model of hope and faith.
She appeared on the news show 60 Minutes with Mike Wallace. She told Wallace that:
"I think the difference between me and some people is that I'm content to do my little bit. Sometimes people think they have to do big things in order to make change. But if each one would light a candle we'd have a tremendous light".
In 1989, shortly before her death, in recognition of her contributions to the service of the Church, she was awarded an honorary Doctorate in Religion by Boston College in Massachusetts.
Read more about this topic: Thea Bowman
Famous quotes containing the word evangelist:
“Kipling, the grandson of a Methodist preacher, reveals the tin-pot evangelist with increasing clarity as youth and its ribaldries pass away and he falls back upon his fundamentals.”
—H.L. (Henry Lewis)
“Parisians are so besotted, so silly and so naturally inept that a street player, a seller of indulgences, a mule with its cymbals, a fiddler in the middle of a crossroads, will draw more people than would a good Evangelist preacher.”
—François Rabelais (1494–1553)