This year’s theme of the second annual Womanists at the Inkwell conference is Just a Sister Away: Cultivating and Celebrating Sister Circles. Organizers said this underscores the importance of Black sisterhood and friendship to the womanist movement.

Womanism is a term coined by Alice Walker as an alternative to feminism that goes deeper to critically probe the relationships among racial identity, gender, community, faith and selfhood.

On the Vineyard this week this ideal was lifted up, explored, preached on, discussed and even embraced while swimming in the ocean water off Inkwell beach. The series of events was organized by the Black Religious Scholars Group in collaborattion with Union Chapel. Representatives of the Island Clergy Association were among the co-sponsors.

This year’s festivities honored Rev. Dr. Renita Weems and Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale.

Rev. Dr. Renita Weems and Rev. Dr. Cynthia Hale were honored this year. — Jeanna Shepard

Reverend Hale is the founder and senior pastor of the Ray of Hope Christian Church in Decatur, Ga., and Reverend Weems is the dean of Gammon Theological Seminary in Atlanta, Ga.

Both women are accomplished theologians, preachers, writers, academics and leaders in their fields. They have also been close friends for more than three decades. On Monday, they took the stage at Union Chapel to discuss their activism, spiritual journeys and close bond in the context of womanist theology.

After graduating with an economics degree from Wellesley College, Reverend Weems worked briefly for Merrill Lynch before her love of Black women’s literature took her in a different direction. She cited Audre Lorde and Margaret Walker as early influences. Soon, she was in the church, putting the ideas she had learned to work.

Reverend Hale told the audience that it wasn’t until college that she believed women could preach at all. She credited Reverend Weems with “radicalizing” her and shaping her into the womanist theologian she is today.

“Renita helped me to be secure in who I am, but also to grow up,” she told the crowd. “I know you can’t believe this, but back then, I was a bit timid.”

Stacey Floyd Thomas and Aliya Browne (center) helped organize the event. — Jeanna Shepard

Though the pair is closer than ever, their friendship hasn’t been without its challenges. In moments of friction, both personally and professionally, they said that it was being part of a larger network of women that kept them committed to one another — a womanist idea that played out in real time.

“It was our friendship with other women [that] kept blessing us, [that] kept us having to come back to the table,” Reverend Weems said.

The discussion was moderated Rev. Dr. Floyd-Thomas, executive director of the Black Religious Scholars Group and a professor of ethics and society at Vanderbilt University Divinity School.

She asked the honorees what keeps them up at night.

Reverend Hale said it is the many women who are struggling under the weight of systemic barriers to happiness, health and prosperity.

“What keeps me up at night are the issues of women who don’t have what I have. Hurting women, women trying to raise their children without anything, women who can’t get an abortion because Roe v. Wade has been struck down,” she said.

For Reverend Weems, it is fears about an uncertain future.

“Fifty, 100, 150 years from now, what difference would it have made that Black women were in ministry in larger numbers than ever, at the close of the 20th century and beginning of the 21st century?” she wondered. “Will we have moved the needle?”

Following the talk, both honorees were presented with Womanist of the Year awards.

Reverend Floyd-Thomas noted the timeliness of Monday’s discussion given the increasing likelihood that Vice President Kamala Harris will replace President Joe Biden as the 2024 Democratic candidate after he pulled out of the race Sunday.

“Knowing what our [potential] presidential candidate will now face as a Black woman and the comments that will be made about her... We’re not taking that,” she said.

Monday’s panel anchored a packed slate of events taking place throughout the week, including worship sessions, conversations with academic and faith leaders, many of whom have Vineyard ties, art exhibits and a whole lot of laughter and bonding.

Reverend Floyd-Thomas told the Gazette that the Vineyard — specifically Oak Bluffs — has been an intentional choice for the location of the conference. Last year’s event honored Emilie Townes, a Vineyard resident and past dean of Vanderbilt University’s Divinity School. Ms Townes is now the MLK Professor of Religion and Black Studies at Boston University’s School of Theology.

Reverend Floyd-Thomas lifted up the serenity of the Island and its history as a stronghold of Black community.

“Our hope is that as we celebrate women... people will realize that there’s a wellspring of support [on the Island] regardless of one’s race, regardless of one’s gender, regardless of one’s profession, regardless of one’s faith,” she said.

Reverend Floyd-Thomas said it’s vital that Vineyarders of all identities seek out and actively participate in the kind of discourse the conference facilitates.

“We need to realize that we’re the ones we’ve been waiting for,” she said. “What we need is not something that’s going to come down from heaven, or come to us from outer space. It’s already here.”