Weems slated to speak

Renita J. Weems, a biblical scholar, writer and ordained minister will give the graduation address Friday, December 12 at 10:30 a.m. in the F. G. Clark Activity Center.
During the 1990s, Weems was a columnist for Essence Magazine where her popularity as an authority on spiritual texts widened.
A former faculty member at Vanderbilt and Spelman, Weems is the author of many spir-itual-themed books, including “Just A Sister Away,” “What Matters Most: Ten Passion-ate Lessons from the Song of Solomon” and “Showing Mary: How Women Can Share Prayers, Wisdom, and the Blessings of God.”
As the first black woman to earn a Ph.D. in Old Testament studies from Princeton University, Weems has traveled throughout the country speaking and blogging on an array of topics including spiritually in the everyday lives of others.
Ordained an elder in the AME church since 1984, Weems and her husband pastor Ray of Hope Community Church in Nashville where she hosts workshops on miracles in the Bible, women, violence, spirituality and male-female relationships.
When not speaking or touring, Weems can be found blogging on her Web site, www.somethingwithin.com, where she writes daily about the politics and the current culture of the world.
Weems was also featured in the 2008 publication of “Black Stars: African American Religious Leaders,” a collection of biographies of important black religious leaders over the past 200 years, Weems was listed among such luminaries as Elijah Muhammad, Sojourner Truth, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Adam Clayton Powell.