Senior Pastor
Salt & Light
Associate Conference Minister of Congregational Development
Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, UCC

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.

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

At the beginning of 2026, Pastor James ended a 9 year period where he served the wider church as the Associate Conference Minister of Congregational Development for the Pennsylvania Southeast Conference, UCC. In this role Pastor James worked with the congregations 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. Additionally, Salt & Light offers hundreds of hours of free therapy and counseling through its ministry, Bethesda’s Pool. Bethesda’s Pool provides licensed therapists for individuals, couples, children, and youth, at no cost and is available to anyone from the community.

Pastor James is a purposeful and courageous voice for justice across the national landscape. In August, 2014, Pastor James traveled to Ferguson, MO, just days after the murder of Michael Brown, to join local young people who faced down guns and tanks daily in protest. Likewise, in November 2021, Pastor James joined hundreds of clergypersons from across the nation who gathered at the courthouse in Brunswick, GA, as the men who murdered Ahmaud Arbery were on trial. Pastor James and Salt & Light are founding members of POWER, an interfaith social justice organization that stretches across Pennsylvania.

Pastor James has previously served on the board of trustees of United Lutheran Seminary and currently serves as the Vice-chair of the national board of the United Church of Christ. Pastor James also serves on the board of The Common Place, which is the nonprofit arm of Salt & Light. Through The Common Place, Pastor James is able to touch the community in an expanded way through an after-school program, summer camp, and two community gardens that provide hundreds of pounds of fresh produce to the residents of SW Philadelphia every year. Additionally, Pastor James coaches baseball, basketball, and soccer in Mt. Airy and Chestnut Hill sports leagues.

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.