Resting in Power – Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon

BY DELANO DOUGLAS (M.Div’04/Th.M.,’11)

Words cannot express the depth of the impact that the life of Dr. Katie Geneva Cannon had on my life as a child of God, student of the seminary, mentee on a personal level, and minister of the gospel of Jesus Christ.  I am confident that she had a similar impact on millions of others whose lives she touched from countless platforms. Nor can words express the depth of the impact that the news of her death has had.  I can only think of three other times in my forty years of existence that I’ve gone through the smattering of emotions associated with grasping the breadth of the passing of someone whose life has shaped me accordingly.  This cloud of witnesses include my first pastor, the late Rev. Dr. C.W. Rice, Jr, of the Mt. Pleasant Baptist Church of Altavista, Virginia; my uncle, the Rev. Dr. Hyrum Green Payne, Sr. of Mt. Evergreen Baptist Church of Concord, Virginia; and my maternal grandmother, the late Mrs. Jochebed Waller Payne of Gladys, Virginia. Collectively, these four individuals who have claimed the promise of the resurrection have inspired me to levels in life that I am not able to express in message or post, and would take me a lifetime to articulate at an introductory level.

But alas, Dr. Katie Cannon is in a class alone on anyone’s Mt. Rushmore of faith! She deserves her own mountaintop monument in all of our lives. She’s a first ballot member in the Faith Hall of Fame, and as she transitioned to the other shore of life on Wednesday, August 8, 2018, we are all the more blessed that she spent a portion of her 68 year tenure serving on our team! I am thankful for the high impact theological aerobic workouts, the sound sage spiritual wisdom, the profound parabolic humor, the rich royal advisement, and the sensational scholastic genius that she is! Though she has passed, she remains everything that she is through each one of us by the grace of God, our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ, and the sweet communion of the Holy Spirit.  Rest In Peace and in Power Dr. Cannon!  I love you!  We love you!