2026 Payne-Harvey Lecture

The Rev. Gayle Fisher-Stewart, PhD.

Thursday, March 26, 2026 | Knapp Auditorium

Please join the community of Seminary of the Southwest for a talk by the Rev. Gayle Fisher Stewart, PhD.

5:30 p.m. – Litany in Christ Chapel

6:00 p.m. – Reception in the Howell Dining Hall

7:00 p.m. – Lecture in Knapp Auditorium

Please RSVP here for the event.

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 2024 recipient of the Union of Black Episcopalians “Bishop Quentin Primo, Jr.” award for “extraordinary leadership as a pastor and advocate for justice in the community, church and beyond.”

 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 the 2nd edition of 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 and what needs to be done in our current age.

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

View the live-stream for the event here.

Hosted by Seminary of the Southwest’s Board of Trustees, and led by the students of Seminary of the Southwest, the Payne-Harvey Lecture is an annual event that focuses on mission and the relationship between pastoral leadership and contemporary issues confronting the church. It honors the Rt. Rev. Claude E. Payne, former chair of the seminary’s board and bishop of the Diocese of Texas, retired, and the late Dean Hudnall Harvey, who died unexpectedly in 1972, after serving as the seminary’s dean for just five years.

Over the years, these Lectures have become a lasting and vital resource for the seminary, bringing important and diverse theological voices to our campus.