Wendi Williams, a longtime employee of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, has been named the new executive director of the archdiocese’s Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach. She assumes her post Nov. 29.
“It’s just so exciting thinking about all of the possibilities that we have to support our parishes in celebrating our diversity,” Williams said. “The most exciting part of what I will be able to do is engaging with our diverse cultures in celebrations and other activities that recognize their rich traditions and how they come alive in our parishes.”
The archdiocesan Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach works in evangelizing the various racial, ethnic, and culturally diverse communities in the archdiocese, and planning and coordinating ministry and outreach to those communities.
“We have such active and vibrant diverse parishes and faith communities that are always doing exciting things,” Williams said, adding that she looks forward to “supporting parishes that want to engage with other diverse parishes and promote and engage in evangelization. Embracing diversity broadens our world view, and doing it through the lens of our faith provides a foundation of our commonality.”
The Office of Cultural Diversity and Outreach also coordinates festivals, celebrations, conferences, workshops, special liturgies, pilgrimages and public devotions such as the annual Black Catholic History Month Mass, Living Stations of the Cross, El Señor de los Milagros procession, and the Walk with Mary procession and Mass honoring Our Lady of Guadalupe, the patroness of the Americas.
“There are opportunities around us everywhere every day to celebrate our diversity. Our faith is not just practiced on Sunday – we live our faith every day and the opportunities to create engagement in our communities is something we will be doing,” Williams said. “We are helping our parishes and the faithful in celebrating our diversity and recognizing our diversity through culturally sustaining practices that recognize our diverse cultures and traditions.”
“The work that we do takes the whole Church,” Williams added. “When it comes to the work of the Office of Cultural Outreach and Diversity, we are looking to engage the whole Church, but our purpose is to mobilize the faithful through their parishes.”
Williams said part of her job will be to help the faithful “recognize the beauty of the diversity of our diversity.” Although the archdiocese has large Asian Pacific, Black and Hispanic Catholic communities, Williams stressed that “each group is not a monolithic block. We know this.”
“My experience as an African American Catholic can be very different from others because of different cultural experiences that make up who we are,” she said. “We must recognize and celebrate and understand that we can’t put people in these categories necessarily. These categories are diverse within themselves, and diversity within diversity is just beautiful.”
She said that when it comes to truly recognizing and celebrating the ethnic and cultural diversity of the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, “we can always do better, and there are opportunities that will allow us to do better.”
“Where we don’t see opportunities immediately in front of us, we have to create those opportunities to do better in seeing all of our brothers and sisters as being made in the image of Christ and having that in the forefront of our mind,” Williams said.
A graduate of the University of Oregon, Williams attended a Catholic elementary and high school in the Archdiocese of Portland. She and her husband, Michael – who is a graduate of DeMatha Catholic High School in Hyattsville, Maryland – have two children who are also graduates of archdiocesan Catholic elementary and high schools. Williams and her husband are members of Holy Redeemer Parish in College Park, Maryland.
Williams joined the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington in 2008 as the director of the annual Cardinal’s Appeal. Most recently she has served as assistant superintendent for advancement and enrollment management for the archdiocese’s Catholic Schools Office. Prior to joining this archdiocese, she served as president and CEO of the Prince George’s County Chamber of Commerce and as the executive director of the YMCA of Metropolitan Washington.
“This (new job) will be my third office during my 14 years with the archdiocese,” she said. “This role brings together the combined experiences I’ve had professionally before the archdiocese and during my tenure with the archdiocese to bring people together through their faith.”
With her third leadership position within the Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, Williams said that “I have such a strong sense of faith personally, and to be able to share my faith in the work that I do has been very rewarding – personally and professionally. To work in the community where I live has also been a gift.”
“I’ve always had passion for the work and the roles I have had in Roman Catholic Archdiocese of Washington, but this (new) role is one that I am so, so excited about,” she said. “As we become more diverse, the more important this work becomes.”
