by Merle Monahan/Contributing Writer
merlemonah@aol.com

BOYKINS—The Rev. Dr. Lillie A. Faison was installed as a full-time pastor of Shiloh Missionary Baptist Church on Saturday, making it the first time a woman has led the nearly 150-year-old church.

A member of the Boykins church since 1957, Faison has been a devoted Christian throughout her life. She received the call into the ministry in 1997, and was licensed and ordained at Shiloh by Pastor Anthony Ferebee.

She earned her Master of Divinity degree in 2000 from the Virginia Union University, Samuel DeWitt Proctor School of Theology in Richmond, and her Doctor of Ministry degree from Regent University in Virginia Beach in 2012.

Faison earned both degrees while working as an instructor at Paul D Camp Community College. After 31 years, she retired in 2007 as an associate professor of English and religion.

The new pastor was surrounded by her family during the service. The wife of Carl Faison, Southampton County supervisor from Boykins, she is the mother of five children: Lt. Colonel Carl Jerome Faison; Kevin Hugh Faison, marketing director for Youth Builders; John Ryan Faison, a Baptist minister; Lillie Faison Beck, English teacher; and Martin Patrick Faison, emergency planner for a West Virginia consulting company. Also in attendance were three of her sisters and their mother.