Fr. Manuel B. Williams, CR, MDiv, ThM

Rev. Manuel B. Williams, C.R., CFRE, M.Div., Th.M., has served as Director of Resurrection Catholic Missions of the South, Inc. and Pastor of Resurrection Catholic Church in Montgomery, Alabama since July of 1990. Born in Aliceville, Alabama and raised in Montgomery, Father Williams is a 1971 alum of Resurrection Catholic School and is a graduate of St. Jude Educational Institute High School (1975), the University of Notre Dame (B.A. 1979), Aquinas Institute of Theology, St. Louis (M.Div. 1987), the National Institute for Planned Giving, the College of William and Mary, Williamsburg, VA (1993), and Xavier University of Louisiana, New Orleans, LA (Th.M. 2015).

Father Williams professed first vows on May 30, 1982, and was ordained on May 23, 1987 as a member of the Congregation of the Resurrection. He served for thirteen years as a member of the Congregation of the Resurrection Provincial Council (Leadership Team). Prior to returning to Montgomery, Father Williams, served as Director of Student Activities and religion instructor at Gordon Technical High School (Now DePaul Academy) in Chicago, Illinois.

Father Williams has also served on the boards of numerous national and local organizations including Catholic Social Services, Montgomery Advocacy and Outreach (Formerly Montgomery AIDS Outreach), the United Way, the National Black Catholic Clergy Caucus, the National Catholic Development Conference (NCDC) where he served as the NCDC Chairman of the Board in 2017 and 2018.

Father Williams recently completed service on the board of Support Our Aging Religious, (SOAR) in Silver Springs, MD, and currently serves as a board member of the Alabama Shakespeare Festival (ASF) in Montgomery. He also serves as treasurer for the board of Faith In Action Alabama, the board of directors for Alabama Appleseed and has served as Alabama District Chaplain for Alpha Phi Alpha Fraternity, Inc., and as Chapter Chaplain for his local Alpha Upsilon Lambda Chapter and as chapter president.

Father Williams is a graduate of Leadership Montgomery Class XIII and of Leadership Alabama. Father Williams also preaches revivals and missions throughout the U.S., specializing in African American Catholic spirituality and history. He is an adjunct instructor at the Institute for Black Catholic Studies (IBCS) at Xavier University New Orleans teaching certificate classes in preaching and pastoral leadership. He served as Co-Director for IBCS from 2017-2020.  In 2021 he co-taught a course on Anti-Racism Preaching with ,Fr. Greg Heille, OP, DMin., of the Aquinas Institute of Theology.  Fr. Williams authored a chapter in  Preaching Racial Justice (Orbis Books 2023).