Rev. Dr. Catherine E. Williams is Associate Professor of Preaching and Worship, and Director of Chapel Worship at the Lancaster, PA campus of Moravian University’s School of Theology. 

An ordained Elder in the United Methodist Church, Dr. Williams earned her Bachelor of Music in Church Music from Westminster Choir College of Rider University, her Master of Divinity from Palmer Theological Seminary of Eastern University, and her PhD in Homiletics from Princeton Theological Seminary.  

In her scholarship and teaching, Dr. Williams embraces her dual identities of musician and homiletician. Her article in the Yale Journal of Music and Religion, “Sermon and Song: A Musically Integrative Homiletic”, makes the claim for conjoined preaching and music as a homiletical method. Her chapter in  The Future Shape of Christian Proclamation: What the Global South Can Teach Us About Preaching, edited by LaRue and Nascimento, is titled “Trinidad & Tobago Preaching: The Gospel According to Calypso.” This is the first sustained homiletical analysis of this Caribbean musical genre. Her most recent book, Preaching and Music: Powerful Partners in Proclamation, (Cascade 2025) sustains her ongoing claim that when preaching and music are combined, the synergy they produce is a powerful means of embedding God’s Word into people’s hearts. Dr. Williams has taught several courses at Lexington Theological Seminary, the most recent of which was, “Worship and Song Amid Climate Challenges.”

A member of the Hymn Society of the United States and Canada, Dr. Catherine E. Williams is a sought-after teacher and conference speaker in seminaries and churches around the country.