Rev. Sharon Watkins To Deliver The Inauguration Sermon

The prayer service will be held on Jan. 21 at the Washington National Cathedral.

Obama will get plaudits for asking the first woman to present the sermon. The service will also include presentations by members of other faiths. Rev. Sharon Watkins said she was honored to be selected, and she hoped her message "will call us to believe in something bigger than ourselves and remind us to reach out to all of our neighbors to build communities of possibility."

In a statement from the Presidential Inaugural Committee, Rev. Sharon Watkins called her selection an honor. "I hope that my message will call us to believe in something bigger than ourselves and remind us to reach out to all of our neighbors to build communities of possibility," she said.

Rev. Sharon Watkins is the president and general minister of Christian Church (Disciples of Christ) in the United States and Canada, the first woman to hold that job. Dr. Watkins has an extensive background of service both in this country and abroad. She is a member of the Central Committee of the World Council of Churches based in Geneva, and serves on the WCC's Permanent Committee for Consensus and Collaboration. In 2006, she was a representative at the World Council's General Assembly in Porto Alegre, Brazil. She is the former pastor of Disciples Christian Church in Bartlesville, Oklahoma, where she served for eight years. Reverend Watkins holds a Doctor of Ministry degree from Phillips Theological Seminary, a Master of Divinity from the Yale Divinity School, and a Bachelor's Degree in French and Economics from Butler University.

President Lyndon B. Johnson and his family were members of this church.

By The Ladner Report.