Mayors’ Prayer Breakfast planned for Nov. 25

Staff report

GIRARD

The Rev. Dr. Joan Brown Campbell will be the keynote speaker at the 29th annual Mayor’s Interfaith Prayer Breakfast planned for Nov. 25 at Mahoning Country Club, 710 E. Liberty St., by Mahoning Valley Association of Churches.

The event will begin at 7:30 a.m. Tickets are $20 each or $150 for a table of eight and must be obtained by Nov. 17.

Advertisements are being accepted and must be submitted by Nov. 14.

For event information and ad details, contact the Rev. Dr. Robin Woodberry, executive director of MVAC, at 330-788-5914 or by email to execdirectormvac@gmail.com.

The Rev. Dr. Campbell was director of religion at Chautauqua Institution for 14 years, retiring in 2013. She was the first woman to serve in this role.

Dr. Campbell lived in Youngstown from her birth in 1931 to the time she went to the University of Michigan at 18. While in the city, her family belonged to Tabernacle Presbyterian Church. Her parents, the late Dr. James and Alice Jane Bunn Brown, were involved in the community.

In a Sept. 1, 2013, Vindicator story about her retirement, Dr. Campbell said she received a strong foundation in faith and family growing up in Youngstown. Her grandfather was a Presbyterian minister.

She returned to the Valley in 1985 as a guest preacher when she was serving as executive director of the U.S. office of the World Council of Churches.

She is an ordained minister in two Christian denominations — Disciples of Christ and American Baptist. She was one of the first women to be ordained at the age of 50.

Dr. Campbell also was the first woman to be associate executive director of he Greater Cleveland Council of Churches and the first ordained woman to be general secretary of the National Council of Churches of Christ in the USA.