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- Jackie Utley holds Lily, a newly baptized member of Ascension Lutheran. She was Jackie’s first baptism.
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- Jackie Utley is ordained during the ELCA South Carolina Synod Assembly on June 2, 2013. Bishop Herman R. Yoos III, of the ELCA South Carolina Synod, presides over the service.
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- Jackie pauses with a congregation member during the 2013 “God’s Work. Our Hands.” Sunday, the ELCA’s dedicated day of service. Volunteers held a neighborhood recycling event for electronics to be safely disposed and recycled. They also collected clothes, shoes and toys for a local homeless shelter.
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- Ascension Lutheran church celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2012. Jackie served as assistant pastor at Ascension from 2011 to 2013.
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- For many years, the congregation of Ascension participated in an outreach program called Seeds of Hope, a farmers market that runs throughout the state to help promote small, local farmers. Jackie chats with Ascension member Donna Bone and a customer who lives in the neighborhood.
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- On Jackie’s left is Herman R. Yoos III, bishop of the ELCA South Carolina Synod. Also present are Bob Hawkins, Ascension’s music minister, and Laura Browder, Ascension’s office administrator.
Jackie Utley was the first African American to be ordained in the ELCA in South Carolina. Jackie received her Master of Divinity degree from Lutheran Theological Southern Seminary in Columbia, S.C., in 2009. From 2011 to 2013, Jackie served as assistant minister at Ascension Lutheran Church in Columbia, a primarily White congregation in a formerly all-White community. Following the retirement of their senior pastor, the congregation called Jackie to be their new senior pastor, and on June 2, 2013, Jackie was ordained at the ELCA South Carolina Synod Assembly in Charleston.
