Jay Williams

Rev. Dr. Gerald “Jay” Williams is the lead pastor of Union Church Boston (unionboston.org), a 200-year-old multicultural faith community committed to liberation, justice, and radical love — and the United Methodist Church’s first historically black reconciling congregation. An ordained Elder in The United Methodist Church, Jay has served congregations in New York City, Boston, and San Francisco, including Glide Memorial.

As a young layperson, Jay led the Western NY delegations to General Conference 2000 and 2004 and will lead the New England delegation to the 2021 General Conference. He is co-chair of the Conference Relations Committee of the Board of Ordained Ministry of the New England Conference. Jay is a part of several denominational initiatives committed to liberation: anti-oppression, human flourishing, and empowerment of the marginalized.

Williams holds a Master of Divinity with highest honors from Union Theological Seminary in the City of New York (2009) and the Bachelor of Arts magna cum laude from Harvard College (2003). In May 2017, Jay received the PhD in the Study of Religion from the Harvard University Graduate School of Arts and Sciences. Dr. Williams’s work explores the meaning of “Spirit” in black cultural discourse at the intersection of race, class, gender, and sexuality: particularly how spirit-talk has been a marginalizing language of power.

The dissertation, entitled “Unholy Ghosts in the Age of Spirit: Identity, Intersectionality, and the Theological Horizons of Black Progress,” develops a constructive theology of spirit that rethinks hope, courage, and vitality, premised on insights from W.E.B. Du Bois, Zora Neale Hurston, and Howard Thurman. He recently published an essay “Unsung No More — Pilate’s Mercy! Eulogy in Song of Solomon” in Goodness and the Literary Imagination by Dr. Toni Morrison (October 2019). Through his pastoral and academic work, Jay strives to help more disinherited folk find their voices and mobilize for social transformation.

Rev. Jay, a queer cisgender man, and his partner, Robert, have two crazy yorkie-chihuahuas, Bentley and Hurston.