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Nov. 6--Within some religions, there's still a stained-glass ceiling -- great resistance to female clergy and women having top roles in denominations.
Yet when the Rev. Dr. Sharon E. Watkins was elected general minister and president of the near-million-member Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) last year, "I heard no negative comments," reports the Rev. Wesley Bourdette of Cheektowaga, a retired Disciples of Christ minister.
To Watkins, the election was "surreal," she admitted in an interview before Sunday's meeting of the Western New York Churches in Covenant, comprising area United Church of Christ and Disciples of Christ congregations.
"It was bound to happen eventually. I credit the generations of women who made it possible for me," says Watkins, 52.
She had the credentials, holding a doctor of ministry degree from Phillips Theological Seminary, a master of divinity from Yale Divinity School and a bachelor's degree in French and economics from Butler University.
The clergywoman also has an extensive background of service to the church and its related institutions. She served as pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville, Okla.; was director of student services at Phillips; and has been a member of the General Board, the General Board Task Force on Reconciliation Mission and part of the Stone-Campbell Dialogue group, which looks, in part, at traditions and history of the Disciples, part of mainline Protestantism.
Ordained in 1984 at Hamden, Conn., Watkins serves a six-year term as general minister -- acting as general pastor of the denomination -- and as president, working as chief executive officer of the Indianapolis-based church.
In Western New York, she preached during the 10 a.m. Sunday worship service at Amherst Community Church, in Snyder, where the Rev. Scott Thomas is senior minister.
Then in the afternoon, she addressed the annual fall meeting of the Western New York Churches in Covenant at Cleveland Heights Christian Church in Cheektowaga, on the wider world.
"People of Abrahamic faiths [Christians, Jews and Muslims] are one family," she says. "With globalization, we must call on faith communities to speak out for justice for all people."
e-mail: lcontinelli@buffnews.com
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Copyright (c) 2006, The Buffalo News, N.Y.
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