Journey of faith
From corporate America to church in Atlantic Canada
Truth be told, Rev. Rhonda Britton didn’t want to come to New Glasgow.
The Florida native spent much of her adult life in New York and New Jersey and longed for a return to a warmer climate. As it turned out, providence had a different plan.
Eighteen and a half years later she’s thankful for that change of course and is embracing her role as a Nova Scotian pastor and as the first Black woman to become president of the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada, an organization that represents more than 450 churches in Atlantic Canada.
How Britton got here is an interesting story. Growing up in Florida, Britton said she attended church faithfully. She says she made her faith personal at the age of nine and at one point felt called to ministry. She brushed it aside for a while, though, and pursued an education and career in business and technology.
She obtained a bachelor of business administration degree from Baruch College followed by a master of communication and information studies degree from Rutgers University and then for about 20 years worked in the public and private sector.
During those years she remained active in the church and finally felt called to leave her secular work behind and enter the ministry full time.
“Many people who had worked with me or known me in the business world were not surprised at all when I said I was pursuing full-time ministry,” she said. “I always had been the person people went to for advice and counsel.”
A former teacher of hers from Rutgers she ran into not long after her decision to go into ministry encouraged her to apply to Princeton Theological Seminary.
Because of the school’s reputation for being expensive to attend, she said it had not even been on her radar, but at his urging, she applied.
She remembers stepping out at the school for the first time.
“I came to the parking lot. I got out of my car. I walked onto the pavement. When I put my foot on the grass, I knew that was where I was supposed to be.”
While attending Princeton Theological Seminary, she took a couple of classes with a man named Dr. Peter Paris, who just so happened to have grown up in Pictou County.
As graduation approached, Britton recalls Paris pulled her aside and asked her: “What are you doing after graduation?”
She talked with him about a South African church that had expressed interest in her and also a couple of churches in North Carolina that she was looking into.
“You’re naming all warm weather places,” Paris said to her. “Have you ever thought about Nova Scotia?”
She barely knew where it was, let alone considered it.
He then told her about how his home church in New Glasgow needed a pastor.
“I think you would be ideal for them,” he said.
She brushed it off at first, but he brought it up again and once she gave the OK, he sent her résumé to Second United Baptist Church.
She came up for an interview and when she got back, she told her friends that she didn’t think she was interested.
“My friends said, ‘That’s not what’s coming out of your mouth. You’re talking about this person and that person.’”
She soon realized they were right and answered the call.
Britton ended up serving in the community for five years before moving to Halifax where she now pastors New Horizon’s Baptist Church.
On Jan. 21 she was voted to become this year’s president of the Canadian Baptist Association of Atlantic Canada.
The organization, which includes pastors from the African United Baptist Association of Nova Scotia, has had six Black presidents and three female presidents, but never a Black woman.
“I’m the first intersection of the two,” Britton said. “I think it’s meaningful.”
Rev. Dr. Peter Reid, CBAC executive minister, shared his words of welcome to Dr. Britton in a release posted on the CBAC website.
“I am very delighted that Rev. Dr. Rhonda Britton is now serving as the President of the CBAC. It is a unique time in our history and I think Rhonda brings incredible experience, skill as a leader, and, a needed perspective on some of the pressing issues we face. We have appreciated Rhonda’s participation on our council executive and I look forward to her continued leadership as she guides our council and the Canadian Baptists of Atlantic Canada in the days ahead!”
Britton, who earned a doctor of ministry degree from Wolfville’s Acadia University, hopes that during her time she can help lead the CBAC as it strives to become more representative of the body of churches it represents.
While it’s been a road she didn’t expect, she’s thankful for the path that has brought her to this role.