Grace Catherine Schultz Osborne

Grace Catherine Shultz Osborne was born in Kansas City, MO. She received her early education in Louisville, KY, and Columbus, OH at Franklin University, Capital University and Aenon Bible College. Grace furthered her education at Warner Pacific College and Portland State University as well as other institutions of higher learning. She received her bachelor's and master's degrees from the International Institute and Seminary.

Ordained into the ministry in Kansas City, MO in 1960, Grace C. Osborne was consecrated to the office of Bishop in 1989, the first female to be elevated to that position in Grace Covenant Fellowship Church.

In 1964 Grace was the first African-American teacher employed with the Head Start Program in the city of Portland, OR. At the Faith Tabernacle Church, she served as a Minister of Education for seventeen years. She also held the position of Principal at the Louis 1st Elementary Christian School. She was elected president of the Oregon Association of Ministers Wives and Ministers Widows and served as one of the Regional Vice Presidents in the International Association. Her region included the states of Oregon, California, Alaska, and Hawaii. She now serves as the President Emeritus for the State of Oregon. For eight years she was the pastor of Faith Tabernacle Church. Grace has also been on staff at the North Portland Bible College.

Bishop Osborne has served her community through her involvement as a board member of the Black United Fund (BUF); Portland Released Time Education Program (PREP); One Church, One Child; Friends of the Sisters of the Street; and has been the 1st and 2nd Vice President of the Albina Ministerial Alliance (AMA). Bishop Grace has served on the Service for Children and Families Adoption Committee for ten years. She also served on the advisory committee for the Center for Health Research, and serves on the Franciscan Loan Committee and on the Apostolic World Christian Fellowship (AWCF) Ways and Means Committee.

Grace is now serving North Portland Bible College as its Board Chair. She pastors Grace Covenant Fellowship Church which is celebrating its tenth year. She is President of Grace Cathedral Ministries, an organization designed to address the needs of the drug-affected homeless population and their health-related problems including AIDS. She's currently CEO of Fellowship of Christian Believers, Inc. (formerly FTCC), which her husband Bishop L.W. Osborne founded in 1963.

Bishop Grace lives in Portland Oregon with her husband and daughter. She has been a mother to a relationally integrated family of sixteen, having adopted three children after the age of fifty. In her spare time she enjoys reading and walking.

Bishop Grace is honored by the Women's Federation for World Peace.

Locate on Walk:

• Stage Wall (Left Wall), 2-2