Woman to Lead Christian Church
PORTLAND, Ore. (AP) -- The Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) has elected a woman president -- the first female chief executive ever for the 770,000-member Protestant denomination.
The Rev. Sharon E. Watkins, senior pastor at Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville, Okla., won overwhelmingly support Tuesday from the 3,000 delegates attending the denomination's General Assembly.
"Today is not about me," said Watkins, 51, after she was elected to a six-year term. "Its about all of us joining together and letting God work with us and through us."
Tom Jewell, regional minister for Oklahoma, said Watkins' election, "reflects a great readiness and receptivity to move into the future."
Based in Indianapolis, the Disciples of Christ has its origins in an early 19th-century frontier movement to unify Christians.
"There have certainly been women bishops -- but I don't believe there's ever been another woman who's headed a mainline Protestant denomination," said Adair Lummis of the Hartford Institute for Religion Research, who studies women clergy.
Watkins, a graduate of Phillips Theological Seminary and Yale Divinity School, succeeds the Rev. William Chris Hobgood.
(Copyright 2005 by The Associated Press. All Rights Reserved.)
http://www.11alive.com/life/faith/faith_article.aspx?storyid=66814
Woman to Lead Christian Church (Disciples of Christ)
Discussion in 'Other Christian Denominations' started by dianetavegia, Jul 28, 2005.