The shield consists of a black field with three white elephant heads each holding a golden cross and a white crescent at the top center.
The three elephant heads signifying power, fidelity and wisdom, are from the coat of arms of Charles Pratt, first Earl of Camden and Lord Chancellor of England, for whom the City of Camden was named. In 1773 Jacob Cooper, a descendant of William Cooper, who in 1681 had built a home just below the mouth of the Cooper River, laid out a town and named it in commemoration of Lord Camden, the friend and defender of the rights of the American Colonies. The sense of justice prevailed so strongly in the Chancellor that the English government asked him to resign his high post, after one of his judicial decisions denounced the Stamp Act as a breach of the English Constitution, and declared taxation of the colonies without representation to be sheer robbery.
The three golden crosses honor the Blessed Trinity: Father, Son, and Holy Spirit. These crosses are what is known in
heraldry as the “difference” because they differentiate the Diocese Coat of Arms from that of the Earl of Camden. With this “difference” the significance of the qualities of power, fidelity and wisdom is transferred to the spiritual order.
The crescent at the top center of the shield represents the Immaculate Conception, title of the Cathedral of Camden and the title under which the Blessed Virgin Mary is venerated as patroness of the Diocese of Camden.