Disciples' General Minister and President Sharon E. Watkins

INDIANAPOLIS (1/11/09) — Disciples’ General Minister and President Sharon E. Watkins has been selected to deliver the sermon at President-elect Barack Obama’s national prayer service to be held at the National Cathedral in Washington, D.C., the day after Obama is inaugurated President of the United States.

The Jan. 21 service is organized by the Presidential Inaugural Committee and will be attended by the newly-inaugurated President and Vice-President, along with other religious and political leaders.  Watkins is the first woman ever chosen to preach at this service. Linda Douglass, the chief spokeswoman for the inaugural committee told The New York Times in an article published today that Watkins was chosen because “she delivers a message of unity and inclusivity and tolerance and hope — and those are all central themes we’ve heard from the president-elect.”

“I feel both honored and humbled,” Watkins told DisciplesWorld.  “Regardless of one’s political leanings, all of America is celebrating this historic moment in our national history. The election of the first African American to the presidency opens the door of possibility in a new way to all of America’s children.  To be able to be part of that is tremendous.” 

Watkins added, “My participation in this service can also be a moment of high visibility for Disciples.  Given Disciples’ core passion for wholeness, our vision of the healing of humanity through God’s love, I am pleased to have an opportunity for the nation to become acquainted with our mission and witness.”

Watkins has led the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) since she was elected by the denomination’s General Assembly in July, 2005.  Previously, she was pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, served on the denomination’s General Board, and directed student services and church relations for Phillips Theological Seminary and Phillips University.  Educated at Yale Divinity School and Phillips Theological Seminary, Watkins has spent the last three and a half years helping to renew and transform the denomination for mission in the twenty-first century.   

Watkins was the first woman to be elected General Minister and President for Disciples and is only one of two women serving as head of communion among mainline U.S. Protestant churches today.  Presiding Bishop Katharine Jefferts Schori of The Episcopal Church, U.S.A. was elected by her denomination in 2006.

In her sermon, Watkins told DisciplesWorld, she hopes to urge the President and the nation “to listen to the best of who we are and to be guided and driven by the best hope of who we can be.”  She also acknowledged the profound pastoral opportunity she has to speak to the many staff members starting new positions in Washington. “I can’t help but think of what this means for the families of people coming into their new roles.” 

Watkins is a member of the World Council of Churches Central Committee and serves on that organization’s Committee on Consensus and Collaboration, representing Disciples among the Council’s more than 240 member communions. 

She also serves on the board of directors of Sojourners/Call to Renewal, a progressive magazine and social justice action network prominent among Evangelicals and mainline churches.   The organization hosted a conference in June, 2006 in Washington, D.C., at which then Senator Obama delivered what has become known as a landmark speech on the relationship between religion and public life. 

Watkins, however, does not know Obama personally and has not served on any of his advisory teams.  Instead, she said, “as a Senator, a candidate, and as President-elect, Barack Obama made it a policy to reach out to a wide variety of religious leaders, also inviting a number of mainline church leaders for conversation and discussion of issues.  Mostly through his staff, I have had the opportunity to be in some of those conversations.”    

The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) counts nearly 700,000 members in the United States and Canada in approximately 3,000 congregations.  Disciples partner with the United Church of Christ for overseas ministries through which they work with 270 partner churches and organizations in 70 countries around the world.  Part of the free-church tradition, Disciples are governed by congregations who voluntarily join together regionally, nationally, and internationally to be the church in mission, worship, study, and to provide common witness on issues of the day.

Three former presidents of the United States have been connected to Disciples.  Lyndon B. Johnson worshipped at National City Christian Church while in office.  Ronald Reagan was raised in Disciples congregations and attended a Disciples-related college, Eureka College in Eureka, Illinois.  And James Garfield, the 20th president, was a Disciples minister from Ohio — the only clergy to later become president.  He was assassinated in 1881, having only served a few months of his term.