Rev. Cean R. James | BIO

Reverend Cean James is the Senior Pastor of Salt & Light, an interdenominational, intergenerational congregation worshiping and working in Southwest Philadelphia and Mt. Airy.  One of the fastest growing churches in the nation, Salt & Light is a congregation of vibrant worship, extravagant welcome, passionate activism, and biblical teaching and preaching. Salt & Light has been described as more of a movement than a church, where the idea of following Jesus’ example and His call to be the salt of the earth and the light of the world, is paramount. 

Rev. James completed his undergraduate studies at Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University with a BS in b ology and received his Masters of Divinity from the Lutheran Theological Seminary of Philadelphia. Pastor James has also done doctoral work at Lancaster Theological Seminary. 

Pastor James serves the wider church as the Associate Conference Minister of Congregational Development for the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, UCC. In this role Pastor James works with the churches of the conference in renewal, vitality, growth, and planting new churches. In 2023, after a mass shooting just blocks away from Salt & Light, Pastor James led a coalition of community organizations in developing Kingsessing Heals Community Resiliency Center; a federally funded, trauma informed resource center where local residences find a myriad of tested practices to help them cope and thrive in the face of gun violence. In 2025, Pastor Cean received the President’s Volunteer Service Award for Dedication to Community Service from President Joseph Biden.

Rev. James is married to the former Kesha Barton of Columbia, SC.  Kesha, a graduate of the University of Pennsylvania School of Law, practices law in the public interest. They have been blessed with three sons, Clarence Milton, Jesse Joseph, and Cean Benjamin.