President-elect Barack Obama has selected the Rev. Sharon E. Watkins to deliver the sermon at the national prayer service that will be held on Jan. 21 at the Washington National Cathedral. I guess she is seen as a safe choice, considering that her views on same sex marriage aren’t known and she will not cause the commotion Pastor Rick Warren did in the eyes of gays and lesbians across the United States. Though Obama’s inaugural committee has said that the choice of Ms. Watkins was not an attempt to mollify his critics because she was selected long before Warren entered the picture, nonetheless, she won’t ruffle many feathers. Her appeal is that she delivers a message of unity and inclusivity and tolerance and hope
Ms. Watkins, the first woman ever selected to lead the service, is the president and general minister of the Christian Church (Disciples of Christ), a small, liberal-leaning Protestant denomination with 3,754 congregations and about 690,000 members in the United States and Canada. Ms. Watkins was elected to the post in 2005, the first woman ever chosen to lead a mainline Protestant denomination.
But Ms. Watkins is not well known nationally. She came to the attention of Mr. Obama at a meeting he held during the campaign last summer to introduce himself to a politically and theologically diverse group of ministers. At that closed-door meeting, some of the conservative ministers bluntly questioned Mr. Obama on certain issues. Ms. Watkins was asked to give the closing prayer.
Ms. Watkins has spoken out against torture and the war in Iraq, but as church president she has not taken a position on same-sex marriage. Like many mainline Protestant churches, the Disciples is not unified on the issue. As a congregational church, each church in the denomination is free to set its own policies. Source: NY Times
Ms. Watkins said that the sermon will be 10 to 15 minutes and will not be vetted by the Obama team. The service is traditionally attended by the president and vice president; members of the Supreme Court, Congress and the diplomatic corps; and a host of clergy members and dignitaries.
Filed under: Christian Church, Disciples of Christ, Gays and Lesbians, National Prayer Service, Pastor Rick Warren, President-elect Barack Obama, Protestant, Rev. Sharon E. Watkins
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