Virginia Theological Seminary will recognize the accomplishments and service of the Roanoke Rescue Mission’s long-time CEO, Rev. Joy Sylvester-Johnson, with an Honorary Doctorate. The degree will be conferred at an academic convocation on the campus of the Episcopal seminary in Alexandria, VA on October 4th.
“It is a well-deserved honor for Joy,” said Roanoke Bishop A. Heath Light, “but all of us know the Seminary also honors itself in honoring her.”
Sylvester-Johnson took the helm of the Rescue Mission in 1998. The daughter of the Mission’s founders, Gus and Lois Johnson, she and her husband Dr. John Sylvester-Johnson returned to Roanoke to work at the Mission in 1984. Upon John Sylvester-Johnson’s death in 2011, a scholarship was established in his name at the Seminary for future students in the Anglican Studies program.
In his recommendation for the Honorary Doctorate, Roanoke physician John Priddy wrote, “Like her deceased husband…, Joy is the consummate intellectual in the very best tradition of the church, a keen mind willing to go where truth leads and guided by a heart filled with grace. She has developed the skill to see in others what they cannot, then meet their need—or find a way to do so. Her heart is ever with the least among us and the homeless, but her ministry has been at least as great among the most fortunate in society, giving vision to eyes that once were blind.”
In accepting the honor, Sylvester-Johnson said, “I was surprised Virginia Theological Seminary wanted to bestow an honorary doctorate on me since I am not an academic and I am not an Episcopalian. I will probably never know all the reasons why I was chosen for this honor, but I suspect that in doing so the seminary is aligning itself with ministries like the Rescue Mission, who have been involved in “hands on ministry” with the marginalized for centuries. I really believe if Jesus came to our town today, he would be at the Rescue Mission. Maybe Virginia Theological, which started in 1823 as an institution dedicated to preparing people to be leaders in the church, agrees?”
Sylvester-Johnson is retiring from the Mission in January. A new CEO has yet to be announced.
