Rev. Dr. Dominique Robinson & Rev. Monica Marshall inducted into Morehouse College Board of Preacher

Submitted by Rev. Sam Brown

Education Editor, The Star Of Zion

Email: admin@starofzion.org



May 5, 2023

Atlanta, Georgia - Thursday, April 13, 2023, at 11:00 am local time, hundreds of representatives from the faith community gathered in the Martin Luther King, Jr. International Chapel for the Benjamin Elijah Mays Induction Crown Forum. In this solemn yet festive occasion Morehouse College celebrates some of the best and brightest scholars, pulpiteers, and faith leaders of every rank and file for their contributions to society. “It is our hope that this experience of awareness, prayer, praise, prophetic and pastoral preaching, praxis, and philosophy will greatly enrich your life and bring you into a meaningful connection with God, nature, and people in a holistic understanding of Christian cosmology as moral cosmopolitans. “commented Dr. Lawrence E. Carter, Sr.- Founding Dean of the MLK Chapel and Professor of Religion.



The keynote speaker for the hour was Rev. Dr. Thema Bryant. President of the American Psychological Association, the leading scientific and professional organization representing psychology with more than 120,000 members (apa.org). Dr. Bryant completed her doctorate in Clinical Psychology at Duke University and her post- doctoral training at Harvard Medical Center’s Victims of Violence Program. The title of Dr. Bryant’s sermons was “Saving Democracy While Thriving in the Wake of Cosmic Trauma.”. Musical selections rendered by the Morehouse Glee Club were directed by Dr. David Morrow.





The Star of Zion had the opportunity to speak to both honorees’ days following the ceremony. “What a blessed and humbling honor to be inducted into the Martin Luther King, Jr. Board of Preachers! I am often amazed that after almost forty years in ministry God continues to bless me to be a blessing. What an experience to stand on that stage with my she-roes such as Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook, Dr. Emilie Townes, Dr. Thema Bryant, my B.W. I. M. sisters, and our own Dr. Dominique Robinson. To God be the glory, great things He has done! I’m not tired yet!”- Rev Monica Marshall. The Rev. Monica H. Marshall is a native of Brooklyn, New York, and serves as the Pastor of the Varick Memorial AME Zion Church; Brooklyn’s oldest continuously Black congregation. She answered the call to ministry and has pastored St. Thomas, Haverstraw, Williamsburg, Brooklyn, and Shaw, Corona, N.Y. In 2012 she was appointed pastor of her home church, where she now serves and continues to preach and teach the Gospel.





Rev. Marshall proudly serves as the Chief of Protocol of the NY Annual Conference of the A.M.E. Zion Church. Her other conference responsibilities: member of the Board of Examiners and The Chairman of the Board of Lay Activities. A published musician, she serves as the director of the conference’s 150 voice Mass Choir. A mentor in The R.E.A.L. Black Women in Ministry Initiative, under the direction of Ambassador Suzan Johnson Cook, Rev. Marshall was one of the inaugural honorees at their 2022 Trailblazers & Unsung She-roes Gala, receiving the award for Pastoral Excellence. Rev. Marshall was employed for 26 years by the NYC Administration for Children’s Services as a Contract Management Data Analyst. She retired from that position in 2013 and now pursues her ministerial calling on a full-time basis without distraction.



Rev. Dr. Dominique Robinson, a New Jersey native, is a millennial Womanist homiletician and justice advocate. Reared in the Pentecostal tradition, she answered her call to ministry at 13 and became a member of the African Methodist Episcopal Zion Church at 18 under Rev. Dr. Frances Murray Williams. An ordained itinerant elder in our Beloved Zion, she serves on staff at Shaw Temple A.M.E. Zion Church with Pastor Eldren D. Morrison.





Dominique, a member of the illustrious Delta Sigma Theta Sorority, Incorporated, earned her Bachelor of Arts in Government from Georgetown University, Master of Divinity concentrating in Biblical Interpretation, and Master of Theology concentrating in Homiletics, both from Candler School of Theology. She earned a Doctor of Ministry degree from Columbia Theological Seminary in Gospel and Culture. Her dissertation, "iHomiletic”: Preaching that Clicks," is a groundbreaking research and consulting service to assist faith leaders with developing impactful ministry that employs technology and social media linguistics. She is a Ph.D. student at Christian Theological Seminary in the world's first African American Preaching and Sacred Rhetoric Ph.D. program.



Dr. Robinson is the John Hines Assistant Professor of Preaching at the Seminary of the Southwest in Austin, TX; she is the first African American theology faculty member in the history of the institution. She takes great pride in being the former inaugural Dean of Chapel and Assistant Professor of Religion at Wiley College in Marshall, TX.



Both women have earned much respect in their spheres of influence and have made invaluable contributions to the Freedom Church.