Reverend Dr. Mittie K. Carey, the daughter of Rev. Daniel W. Knowles, a Baptist preacher and pastor, and Mrs. Mary A. Knowles, whose faith has been tried in life’s furnaces but has never wavered, was called to preach the gospel of Jesus Christ on February 26, 2000, licensed on July 16, 2000, and ordained on April 30, 2006, at Olivet Fellowship Baptist Church. Currently, she is an associate minister at St. Andrew African Methodist Episcopal Church, where the Reverend Troy I. Thomas is senior pastor, and the Reverend Doctor Maxine L. Thomas is assistant pastor. On October 22, 2023, she was ordained as a local deacon of the African Methodist Episcopal Church and she continues to serve at St. Andrew as a member of The Followers Ministry, a teacher of the new members’ class,  a participant in Bible study, church school, and the Social Justice Ministry, and in other aspects of the gospel ministry as directed by her pastors. 

 

A life-long learner in biblical studies, Rev. Mittie has attained certification in the study of  the Pentateuch, the African American presence in scripture, and the teachings of Jesus. She has facilitated Christian workshops throughout the Memphis area on such topics as ministering to and retaining new members, providing Spirit-centered ministry to the sick, and creating and sustaining healthy marriages. 

 

On May 6, 1970, Rev. Mittie accepted a job as a long-distance operator with American Telephone and Telegraph Company (AT&T), which later became South Central Bell, then BellSouth, and finally AT&T again in 2007. Her outstanding job performance and exemplary work ethic led to her promotions to Customer Service Representative in 1973, Supervisor – Repair Service Bureau in 1975, Supervisor – Dispatch in 1977, Supervisor I&M in 1979, and Acting Manager I and M in 1995. She retired from BellSouth in 1995 after 25 years of dedicated service. She later worked for Continental Traffic, Inc., AC Humko Foods, and XO Communications. In 2001, she was hired as the manager of telecommunications by Terminix Pest Control, a division of The ServiceMaster Companies and was promoted to Director, Telecommunications - Field Support for ServiceMaster in 2004 where she remained until April 2007. She also served part-time as a chaplain with Marketplace Chaplains, USA from  2007 until 2008. 

 

Mittie earned the Bachelor of Science degree in marketing from Christian Brothers University in 1998, the Master of Divinity from Memphis Theological Seminary in 2004, and the Ph.D. in Communication from the University of Memphis in 2012, where she was a recipient of a First -Generation scholarship, a Southern Region Education Board fellowship, and a graduate teaching assistant award in the Department of Communication. She served as the visiting assistant professor in the Department of Communication at Western Kentucky University in Bowling Green, Kentucky, from 2012 through 2014 where, among other courses, she taught oral communication and the voices of women during the Civil Rights Movement.

 

Rev. Dr. Carey’s unshakeable declaration of faith is “For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord” (Ro. 8: 38, 39, NKJV). Her theological understanding of love is best expressed in her unconditional love and devotion to her husband of 45 years, Jesse Lee Carey; their children, her nonagenarian mother, her four beautiful grandchildren and her brilliant great-granddaughter.