Reverend Althea J. Hayward

Born in Somerset, Bermuda, Reverend Althea J. Hayward is the eldest daughter of the late Mr. Reuben Lambert and Mrs. Helen Lambert. Reverend Hayward received her early education in the Bermuda School system, graduating from the Berkeley Institute High School with honors. She received an Associate’s Degree with distinction in Office Management from Donovan Business College in Hackensack, New Jersey; and graduated cum laude from Hampton University with a Bachelor’s Degree in Paralegal Studies.  She is also enrolled in study at Anderson Theological Seminary.

Reverend Hayward’s employment career as a legal administrator spans more than 39 years. She spent the first half of that time as the Administrator and Director of Peninsula Legal Aid Center in Hampton, Virginia. She was also employed as the Deputy Director of the Office of Program Performance at the Legal Services Corporation which provides all the federal funding to legal aid programs throughout the United States and its territories.   There, she helped manage the office that is responsible for the grant-making and program quality oversight of all legal aid offices receiving federal funding. There, she was also responsible for the design and implementation of national educational initiative for clients and boards of directors governing legal aid offices.  She retired from that position in December 2019.

Under the pastoral ministry of her husband, Reverend Hayward answered the Call to Preach in November 1992 at Bethel African Methodist Episcopal Church, Hampton, Virginia. She was ordained an Elder in the African Methodist Episcopal Church in May 1997 by Bishop Vinton R. Anderson. Reverend Hayward is a gifted woman of God whom God has used to establish support groups and ministries that address the needs of individual members, particularly for the women and youth of each of her husband’s pastorates. She has a compulsion to help others and to preach the Gospel of Jesus Christ without compromise so that the lives of men, women, and youth and young adults are dramatically changed.

Since her ordination as an Elder, Reverend Hayward has served as Associate Pastor at each of her husband’s pastoral assignments (Waters AME Church, Baltimore and Hemingway Memorial African Methodist Episcopal Church, District Heights, MD). At both churches she was instrumental in helping to grow individual church members in her capacity of advisor to Women’s Ministries and as a Bible Study Teacher. In addition, at Hemingway, Rev. Hayward coordinated and mentored 13 ministerial staff members, worked as Advisor to the Young Adult Ministry, Worship & Liturgy Chair, and Executive Assistant to the Pastor.  In 2015, during the illness of her husband, Rev. Hayward was interim pastor at Hemingway Memorial for 6 months.

Reverend Hayward served as Chair of Women in Ministry, for the Eastern District of the Baltimore Conference, and is committed to the support of the AME Church’s Clergy Family Organization. She has served as Conference president of the Clergy Spouses Organization in all of the Conferences in the Second Episcopal District with the exception of the Western North Carolina Conference.

As mentioned previously, Reverend Hayward is married to the love of her life, Presiding Elder Dr. Samuel E. Hayward, III. Their union of 49 years has been blessed with two daughters: Kimberly, who is gifted with a psalmist ministry, and Reverend Kristina Hayward, who is also an ordained minister in the AME Church. She is also the grandmother of Sydnee Grace, who brings excitement to her life!

Reverend Hayward’s favorite scripture is:

“I can do all things through Christ which strengthens me!”