About Reverend Doctor Carletta Allen (Pastor Allen)

The Rev. Dr. Carletta Allen was born in Tampa, FL. After a painful divorce her mother quickly remarried an airman from the local Air Force base. Her second home was Tachikawa, Japan, a now abandoned Air Force base outside of Tokyo. In Tachikawa her family lived off-base in an almost entirely Japanese neighborhood. It was there that her love of ‘others’ was born. The brotherhood of man was something she internalized at an early age. Upon return to this country in 1962, when she was 6 1/2, her mother rejected the social strife of the American South and the family relocated to Washington, DC, where her stepfather continued his long military career at what was then Andrews A. F. Base. Although not perfect, this move north was a wise choice and one for which she is eternally grateful.

Pastor Allen was educated primarily in the public schools of Washington, DC and Prince George’s County. After early careers in women’s retail and fashion, she entered the corporate world of banking and finance, ending that career as a mid-level administrator in the Marketing Department. Along the way, after many years of struggle as a single parent, she earned her Bachelor of Science degree in Behavioral Science from what was then known as the University of Maryland University College (now University of Maryland Global Campus). Upon graduating she immediately entered the Master of Divinity program at Wesley Theological Seminary and, while working two jobs, leading prison ministries in multiple locations, and raising a son, she graduated cum laude. Five years later she earned a Doctor of Ministry degree (summa cum laude) from the same institution. Needless to say, education is of paramount value to her.

Her own challenges in childhood and as a young adult single mother have engendered a compassion for those who face obstacles, especially those that seem insurmountable. Her own strong will and indomitable spirit have led her to believe that almost no obstacle is wholly insurmountable. However, she’s also come to know that her own will and efforts, no matter how formidable, are of little consequence when divorced from a foundational, spiritual source. For her that source is God, as embodied in Jesus Christ.

She was ordained a United Methodist provisional Deacon in 1996, and an Elder in 2002. She has served four appointments in the Baltimore-Washington Annual Conference: Wheaton, MD, Sykesville/Cooksville, MD, Columbia, MD, and Annapolis, MD. Serving in suburban, rural, small town and country, and urban contexts has added a richness to her life and ministry. She has had to begin anew in each setting, and get to know the people and the culture of each place. This is her greatest love as an itinerant pastor, being forced to move and to begin again, knowing that each place and people will be a blessing if she’s open to being transformed.

Her interests are many but they are held together by a common thread — an unwavering belief in the goodness of a divine Creator and the manifestation of that goodness in all creation (human and otherwise). She seeks, in all things, to find the intersections that bind us together and reveal our wondrous interconnectedness.

This core belief has led her to volunteer on numerous boards, agencies and non-profit organizations. When she arrived in Annapolis in 2011 she sought an organization that would connect her with a broad cross-section of the town and county. A colleague suggested his Rotary Club. Although she knew little about Rotary she accepted his invitation to lunch and, after three lunch meetings, wanted to become part of the club, and of Rotary International. On September 26, 2013 she was inducted into the Rotary Club of Annapolis. After serving on the Board of Directors from 2015-2018, she was elected President and served in that capacity in the 2019-20 term.

In addition to various city (Annapolis) and county (AA) commissions and committees, she has served on the Boards of: the Annapolis Opera, the Lighthouse Shelter, and Susanna Wesley House (Baltimore). She was a member of the Anne Arundel County School Superintendent’s Blue Ribbon Commission. She is the sole chaplain for the Office of the Sheriff of Anne Arundel County, and a member of the Chaplains Corps of the Anne Arundel County Police Department. She is an active CASA (Court Appointed Special Advocate) for children in foster care and adores her four ‘CASA kids’.

She is the mother of one adult son, an honorably discharged SSGT, US Marine Corps, who served three tours in Iraq (in five years). That son has blessed her with an 10-year old grandson who is unspeakable joy.

One of her favorite quotes is usually mistakenly attributed to Plato or Philo of Alexander, but seems rather to come from a 20th century writer. Whatever the source, it is this, “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle”.