Reverend Raquel A. St. Clair, Ph.D.
The Reverend Raquel A. St. Clair is the first woman to serve as the Executive Minister to the 6000 members of the historic St. James African Methodist Episcopal Church in Newark, NJ where Rev. William D. Watley is the Senior Pastor. Her primary task is to execute the God-given vision of the Senior Pastor by overseeing all ministries, supervising the ministerial staff, equipping and resourcing lay and clergy for ministry, and participating in the preaching and worship leadership of the church. In 2006, St. James became “One Church in 2 Locations,” opening a second worship in suburban Essex County. Rev. St. Clair is the ministry leader for that site and is responsible for preaching, site development, and discipling the membership. Rev. St. Clair is also the founder of the Women’s Ministry, which currently includes two weekly women’s Bible Studies and special events.
Dr. St. Clair received her Ph.D. in New Testament Studies at Princeton Theological Seminary where she was the first African American to receive the degree. She was the recipient of the Presidential Doctoral Fellowship, the highest award given to incoming Ph.D. candidates, the New Testament Fellowship and the Expository Preaching Prize. In 2000, Rev. St. Clair had the distinction of being one of nine African American Ph.D. students in the nation to receive a Dissertation Fellowship from the Fund for Theological Education. Rev. St. Clair has served as a Teaching Fellow in both introductory and advanced level graduate courses and as a Teaching Assistant for New Testament Greek. She is also proficient in the Biblical languages of Hebrew and Aramaic.
Because Dr. St. Clair’s academic and ministerial focus is Biblical instruction as it relates to African Americans and specifically African American women, she has served as the Chaplain of the Association of Black Seminarians, Princeton Theological Seminary (PTS) and the first African American Co-Coordinator of the Women’s Center (PTS). She was one of two graduate student representatives in one of the nation’s largest professional societies of Biblical scholars, the Society of Biblical Literature, where she was a member of the Committee on the Status of Women in the Profession. Dr. St. Clair has served on the Advisory Board for The African American Pulpit, the only journal devoted exclusively to African American preaching.
Dr. St. Clair is a sought after preacher, speaker, Bible study teacher, staff development consultant, and workshop facilitator for many church-related and community oriented programs as well as a published author. Her first publication, The African Presence in the Bible: Gospel Sermons Rooted in History, was co-authored with her pastor, Dr. William D. Watley. Dr. St. Clair’s article, “Womanist Biblical Interpretation” is included in True to Our Native Land, the first New Testament commentary written exclusively by African American with earned Ph.D.’s. Dr. St. Clair’s first solo publication, Call and Consequences: A Womanist Reading of Suffering and Discipleship in Mark’s Gospel, was released in the Fall of 2008 from Fortress Press. She has forthcoming articles in More Power in the Pulpit, New Interpreters Bible Handbook on Preaching, and A Handbook of Feminist Biblical Theology.
Dr. St. Clair holds a Bachelor of Arts in Religious Studies from Yale University and a Master of Divinity degree from Princeton Theological Seminary.