Rev. Lorentho Wooden

The Rev. Canon Lorentho Wooden

June 25, 1927 – October 7, 2024

The Rev Canon. Lorentho Wooden, one of The Episcopal Church’s most brilliant and compelling leaders in the quest for racial justice, died October 7 at age 97 at his home in Cincinnati. His daughter Deborah and granddaughter Hediah were at his side singing him on to glory. The Most Rev. Michael B. Curry, presiding bishop of The Episcopal Church, and the Rt. Rev. Kristen Uffelmann White, bishop of Southern Ohio, will lead the Celebration of his life at Christ Church Cathedral, 318 East Fourth Street, Cincinnati, OH 45202 on Monday, October 28. Visitation in the Centennial Chapel is from 10 -10:45 a.m., followed by the Liturgy for the Burial of the Dead at 11 a.m. in the Church. Committal will follow immediately at the Cathedral Columbarium, and all are invited to remain for a brief reception in the Cathedral Library.

Lorentho Wooden grew up in Florida and flourished as a scholar at Morehouse College, Episcopal Divinity School, and the University of Chicago.

He served as Rector of St. Simon’s, New Rochelle NY, as administrator of Reality House, Inc. in Montclair, N.J.; and three years as urban affairs officer for the Diocese of New York.

He was recruited by Southern Ohio’s Bishop John Krumm in the early 1970s as Community Development Officer, becoming the first Black person to serve on the senior staff of the Diocese of Southern Ohio. He led the groundbreaking Institutional Racism Project, twenty years of self-examination by the diocese and its congregations on our previously unexplored assumptions about how we called parish clergy, chose contractors and vendors, and supported the education of young Black Episcopalians. The comprehensive and rigorous nature of this work parallels The Episcopal Church’s Becoming Beloved Community work spearheaded by Presiding Bishop Curry. In Southern Ohio under Fr. Wooden’s guidance, this bore fruit in an extraordinary increase in the representation of people of color – both clergy and lay – in leadership bodies including senior staff of the diocese, canonical bodies like Diocesan Council, and commissions.

Bishop William Grant Black named Fr. Wooden archdeacon of the diocese, with a broad portfolio. He subsequently served as the first Black priest at All Saints, Pasadena. Returning to Cincinnati in the 1990s, Fr. Wooden served as Rector of St. Simon of Cyrene in Lincoln Heights. In retirement he was a parishioner of Christ Church Cathedral.

Fr. Wooden was an extraordinarily profound and strategic leader, applying the example of Jesus with his own trenchant, ironical, and wistful analysis of the assumptions and blind spots of fellow Americans. He yearned for Black Episcopalians to be seen as full members of this church. equipped to offer wisdom and leadership on any matter from stewardship to liturgy. In many conversations with this reporter, he shared painful experiences of being invisible or written off by fellow members of our church despite his leadership roles.

Together with his Episcopal Divinity School classmate the Rev. David Ruhmkorff, he offered a workshop called “Through the Eyes of a Friend” which drew on the example of Miep Gies,whose family sheltered Anne Frank, to provide a platform for white people to start envisioning their own roles in fighting racism.

Fr. Wooden continued to interact with white Episcopalians with a combination of elan, hope, and salty challenge. His first-person stories went straight to our hearts and stayed there to keep us from staying complacent, while giving us the energy to keep working on social justice. When they “retired,” both Fr. Wooden and Fr. Ruhmkorff moved with their equally brilliant wives Margaret and Jane to a condominium on Lytle Park in Cincinnati.

One of the greatest pleasures for their friends and colleagues was to go sit in the living room of one or the other and hear these two social philosophers unpack the hot issues of the day, from Supreme Court rulings to local politics. Fr. Wooden continually illuminated our world and our work with Jesus’ compassion and love. We sat at his feet, listened, learned, and marched back out with joy and determination.

–Ariel Miller

Fr. Wooden was preceded in death by his mother Leila; his siblings Vera, Doretha, and Raymond; his wife Margaret Lockerman Wooden; and his son Lorentho Stephen Wooden. He is survived by his daughters Ditzah Marie Wooden-Wade (Vernard), Vera Elizabeth Wooden, and Deborah Evangeline Wooden; daughter-in-law Victoria Marthone; grandchildren Noah Lorentho, Matthieu Stephen (Ashley), Nyaa-Simone, Hediah Elizabeth, Gabriel Marc; one great-grandchild Quincy David; and many nieces, nephews, colleagues, and friends.

Memorial contributions may be made to:

The Greater Cincinnati Alzheimer’s Association

Sawyer Point Building 720 E. Pete Rose Way, Suite 330 Cincinnati, OH 45202

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