Begins a sixteen‑year professorship in applied Christianity and Christian nurture at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education in Richmond.
On September 1, 1944, Rachel Henderlite began a sixteen‑year professorship in applied Christianity and Christian nurture at the Presbyterian School of Christian Education (PSCE) in Richmond, Virginia.The exact day is inferred from the academic year; sources attest to her long tenure beginning in 1944.[4][5]
PSCE was a graduate program especially for women, training Christian educators for service in congregations and institutions. Henderlite’s courses integrated theology, ethics, and educational theory, emphasizing how faith is formed through the total life of the church rather than merely through classroom instruction.[1][4] She mentored generations of women who would shape Presbyterian education in the mid‑20th century.
During her time in Richmond, Henderlite also helped found the city’s first predominantly Black Presbyterian church, challenging racial segregation in both church and society.[4] Her PSCE years were central to her emerging public witness on race, justice, and ecumenism. She used her platform to critique paternalistic attitudes and to call for more authentic, mutual relationships across racial lines.[1]
This long professorship allowed Henderlite to develop her most influential ideas about curriculum, eventually leading to her directorship of the Covenant Life Curriculum for the Presbyterian Church in the U.S. in the 1960s.[1] For women’s religious history, her role at PSCE demonstrated how a woman theologian, though still barred from ordination, could exercise significant authority over how a denomination educated its children and adults, thereby influencing the future theological and ethical imagination of the church.[1][4][5]