After graduating summa cum laude from Elon College in 1959, Joyce attended Hartford Seminary in Connecticut. She was ordained in 1963, and shortly thereafter was sent to Portugal for language study before serving with the Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola in partnership with the United Church Board for World Ministries. During the first term of five years she was involved in leadership training at Bailundo Mission and helped with conferences which included week-long pastor seminars or retreats and those for Sunday school teachers and women’s leaders. From 1969 until the escalation of the war forced her evacuation in 1975, she taught theological education at Emmanuel Seminary in Dondi.
Joyce then served as Missionary-in-Residence in New York City with the United Church Board for World Ministries before moving to Atlanta for a 10-year assignment as Southern Regional Associate with the UCC Office for Church Life and Leadership. During this time, she met the late Rev. Edward M. Brown, whom she married in 1987. Joyce got involved with the Atlanta chapter of Adopt-a-Minefield, a landmine-clearing effort by the United Nations, and helped raise money to clear nine minefields in Mozambique. Her legacy of peace and justice grew as she continued her life’s work whether it was tutoring twice a week at a school with children of Hispanic immigrants, participating weekly in peaceful protests carrying a “War is Not the Answer” sign as part of the Stand for Peace initiative, or through her involvement with the Atlanta Interfaith Sisters and Church Women United. For her unwavering service to people in her community and around the world, Rev. Joyce Myers-Brown has received numerous recognitions, including the 1989 Antoinette Brown Outstanding Woman in Ministry Award, the 1998 Henry Weaver Peace Award, the 2002 Church Women United Valiant Woman Award and the 2007 CWU Human Rights Award.
At the invitation of the Evangelical Congregational Church of Angola, Rev. Joyce Myers-Brown returned there twenty years later. This extended visit of solidarity and concern renewed bonds with the church in post-war Angola, which has led to lasting partnerships. Joyce also became a member of the Angola Memorial Scholarship Fund and serves as both Corresponding Secretary, Regional Representative and Director.