Identity area
Type of entity
Person
Authorized form of name
Williams, Marita
Parallel form(s) of name
- Williams, Reverend Marita
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Dates of existence
[1944?] -
History
Marita Williams is an Anglican priest and a graduate and former employee of the University of Waterloo. Born in Jamaica, she grew up on Negril beach where her parents provided lodging to researchers and tourists in the area. Her father was Protestant, and her mother was Anglican. As a child, Marita enjoyed attending church but was discriminated against for being a girl. She was not allowed to go up to the altar, and she could not be a server, acolyte, or a priest.
Marita left her childhood home and attended college in Kingston, Jamaica. In 1966, she then transferred to Ryerson University (now Toronto Metropolitan University) in Toronto, Ontario to study business and marketing management. While in Toronto, Marita attended church but was asked to stop attending by the minister who feared he would lose membership because she was Black. He suggested Marita attend a Black church instead. Marita did not attend church for several years following this racist encounter.
Although Marita intended to return to Jamaica and take over her parent’s business, by then a restaurant, she changed plans when she met and married Henry Williams, a Ghanaian studying at the University of Toronto. Marita and Henry had two sons. Marita and her family attended St. Matthew’s Anglican Church in Cambridge and she served as a deacon.
Marita became the manager of space information and resource planning at the University of Waterloo and later worked as the scheduling coordinator in the Registrar’s Office. She also studied at Waterloo, receiving a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in psychology which she worked towards part-time over ten years. Marita received her degree during the convocation ceremony held on Saturday, October 25, 1997. Celebrating with her at the ceremony was her son, Prempeh Williams, who received a Bachelor of Science (BSc), Honours Health Studies, from the University of Waterloo in Spring 1997. Marita retired from Waterloo in 1999.
Following her retirement, Marita made the decision to become a priest. To achieve her goal, she studied at Waterloo Lutheran Seminary at Wilfrid Laurier University, Conrad Grebel University College and Huron College in Western University for her Master’s degree in divinity. She also trained with Reverend Canon Christopher Pratt at the Anglican Church of St. John the Evangelist in Kitchener. In 2009, Marita was called to the priesthood. Marita was believed to be the only Black, female, Anglican priest in the Huron diocese at the time and may still be.
Marita has worked an itinerant priest leading services and presiding over funerals, weddings, and baptisms. She served as the Assistant Priest at St. George’s of Forest Hill in Kitchener for three years and has a regular assignment at Trinity Anglican Church in Cambridge. In 2023, Bishop Townshend appointed Reverend Marita Williams as the interim Priest-in-Charge of St. James, Cambridge.
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Sources
Information about Marita Williams appeared on Page 11 and 12 of the Thursday, January 2, 2014 edition of the Kitchener-Waterloo Record.
Information about Marita Williams appeared on Page 1 of the Wednesday, October 22, 1997 (v.38, n.8) edition of the Gazette. The image that appeared in the newspaper was not found.