Phoebe Alison Roaf

Phoebe Alison Roaf (born March 8, 1964) is an American prelate who is the fourth and current Bishop of West Tennessee.

Early life and education Phoebe Alison Roaf was born on March 8, 1964, in Lansing, Michigan. She is the oldest of four children born to Andree Layton Roaf, the first Black woman to serve on the Arkansas Supreme Court, and Clifton Roaf, a dentist. Her brother Willie is a member of the Pro Football Hall of Fame. She was consecrated bishop on May 4, 2019, at Hope Church (a congregation of the Evangelical Presbyterian Church) in Memphis, used because of its large facilities, something no area Episcopal parish had. At the time of her election as bishop she was rector of St. Philip's Episcopal Church in Richmond, Virginia, the largest historically African American Episcopal Church in Virginia.

Roaf is the first woman and the first African American to serve as bishop in West Tennessee, or in any of Tennessee's Episcopal dioceses, and the fifth woman bishop in the history of the Episcopal Church. She was consecrated by Presiding Bishop Michael B. Curry, who said "“To be sure, she and the people of West Tennessee are making history as she is the first woman as well as the first African American to hold such a position. But the real history-making moment is the hope ... She was elected because she is a woman committed to Jesus of Nazareth and His way of love. And that way of love is the way to life for us all, Black or white, Anglo or Latino, rich or poor, liberal or conservative, gay or straight, old or young. And that is a sign of hope for our country and our world. That’s history!”