2023 Baccalaureate Service Program

Baccalaureate Speaker

Rev. Dr. Jeremy L. Williams Rev. Dr. Jeremy L. Williams currently serves as the Dean of the Eighth Episcopal District ’ s Leadership Training Institute. He is a nationally sought - out thinker, preacher, leader, and author. He hails from Rocket City, USA— Huntsville, Alabama. He is a scholar of religion, specializing in New Testament and Early Christianity. He serves as an Assistant Professor of New Testament at Brite Divinity School at Texas Christian University. Rev. Dr. Williams attended Lee High School, where he graduated salutatorian of his class. Following his high school graduation, he pursued his baccalaureate degree at Vanderbilt University, where he graduated with the highest honors in Religious Studies and Economics. He then earned the Master of Divinity degree from Yale Divinity School, in which he was awarded the Henry Hallam Tweedy Prize, the highest award presented to graduates. Rev. Dr. Williams pursued and earned the Master of Arts degree, as well as the Doctor of Philosophy degree at Harvard University. Rev. Dr. Williams has done archaeology restoration at

Madgala, Israel, as well as presented work in Germany at the Berlin Graduate School of Ancient Studies. Further, he has read Biblical Hebrew in Jerusalem, the Greek New Testament in Athens, and Classical Latin in Rome. Rev. Dr. Williams' research involves studying biblical passages, especially in Acts, where imperial and local officials criminalize the Jesus following movement. His approach involves using Roman legal studies, critical race theory, Black studies, womanist cultural criticism, and material culture to assess how ancient texts crafted narratives to racialize, criminalize, and victimize individuals and groups of people. Conscious of the role that the Bible plays in public policy, he is invested in developing strategies for reading biblical texts in ways that expose the logics that fuel mass incarceration, over - policing, and discriminatory practices in Western judicial systems. He has a number of academic publications including, "I am a Human: Racializing Assemblages and Criminalized Egyptianness in Acts 21:31 - 39" in Bitter the Chastening Rod: Africana Biblical Interpretation after Stony the Road We Trod in the Age of #BLM, #SayHerName, and #MeToo. His book Criminalization in Acts of the Apostles: Race, Rhetoric, and the Prosecution of an Early Christian Movement is under contract with Cambridge University Press and is scheduled for publication in 2023. Rev. Dr. Williams received his ordinations in the North Central Alabama Region of the Christian Methodist Episcopal (CME) Church as a member of Acklin CME Church in Berkley, Alabama. He has had the opportunity to preach, present, and teach at some of the denomination ’ s largest gatherings including the Connectional Youth and Young Adult Conference, the Pastors ’ Conference at Phillips School of Theology, the Unity Summit, and multiple annual and district conferences. He has received appointments in the North Central Alabama Region, the New York - Washington Region, and the Dallas - Fort Worth - Northwest Region. Rev. Dr. Williams is a non - profit leader. He currently chairs the Board of FaithActs for Education based in Bridgeport, Connecticut. He worked at the corporate office of the Boys & Girls Clubs of North Alabama, where in one year he secured over $600,000 in grants for the organization. He served his honorable fraternity, Kappa Alpha Psi, as the National Second Vice President (Junior Grand Vice Polemarch). He also received the highest award given to undergraduates. Rev. Dr. Williams is married to the former Kiara. J. Boone. Five months ago, he and Kiara welcomed their first child, Baby J, into the world. They are also dog parents to Kali. Rev. Dr. Williams works every day to inspire people to “ dream better dreams. ”