About Bishop Tonyia Rawls
Faith-rooted leadership for justice and liberation
Founder & Executive Director, The Freedom Center for Social Justice
Bishop Tonyia Rawls is a nationally respected pastor, organizer, and advocate whose ministry bridges faith, public witness, and community transformation—especially among those most often marginalized by systems of power.
- Founder of Unity Fellowship Church Charlotte (2000), the first Unity Fellowship congregation in the Bible Belt.
- Consecrated in 2008 as one of the first women Bishops in the Unity Fellowship Church Movement.
- Founder and Pastor Emeritus of Sacred Souls United Church of Christ.
- Founder of The Freedom Center for Social Justice (2009), advancing intersectional justice across the Southeast.
Through the Freedom Center, Bishop Rawls leads initiatives such as the Do No Harm Campaign and the “Yes, You Can Go” project, while convening national networks including the Transgender Faith and Action Network and the Liberating Theologies Speaker Series.
Her public leadership includes Moral Monday organizing, service with the North Carolina Council of Churches, and founding roles within clergy and trans-affirming faith coalitions.
A graduate of Duke University, Rev. Rawls attended Episcopal Divinity School and holds advanced nonprofit leadership credentials from Duke. She is a published writer and frequent seminary guest lecturer.
Bishop Rawls brings into every space a faith that confronts harm, a hope rooted in truth, and a steady call for the church to live its values boldly—out loud, and in public.
